§ iNThe 




t- 



Lothf^op Pub l 151 

B05T01J 



SECONH °.OPY, 

I8'a9. 



' 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap..„_S* Copyright Xo. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/americanboysinarOOfren 



AMERICAN BOYS IN THE 

ARCTICS 



A TRIP TO THE FAR NORTH 
BY A NEIV PATH 



BY 

/ 

HARRY W. FRENCH 

AUTHOR OF '< OUR BOYS IN INDIA " " OUR BOYS IN CHINA " 

" OUR BOYS IN IRELAND " ETC. \ 



FULLY ILLUSTRATED 



BOSTON 
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 



29804 



Copyright, 1899, 

BY 
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



'"WO COPIi.v, ,^U..lVED. 






m 1 2 1899 






''(So, 









-Corfoooti }3rcss : 
Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 









AMERICAN BOYS IN THE ARCTICS 



CHAPTER I. 



A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



"^^7"ELL, what do you make out?" Captain Downing called 
V V impatiently, to a man with a glass, clinging to the weather 
rigging, a little below the masthead, on the brig Louise. 

" It's a steamer's boat, sir," the man replied. " I can't get the name. 
There's the likes of an oar run up for'ard, with a bit of a rag on the end 
of it. It's a signal of distress, sure, sir ; but I can't make out any sign 
of life aboard." 

"All right; that'll do," called the captain. To himself he muttered, 
" I suppose we'll have to overhaul her " — much as if it were a duty he 
would shirk at that moment if he could. Then aloud, he added, " Port 
your helm; put about and run her down." 

The stanch fishing brig Louise, lying off the Newfoundland Banks 
during a gale of wind, hove to, came about, took the wind, and dashed 
away toward the flag of distress that was drifting in the heavy sea. 

As the sailors were prepared to lower a boat the captain called for 
a volunteer crew to man it, and Scott Campbell and Royal Sargent, two 
stalwart boys of seventeen, were the first to fall into line. 

They came from the same town as Captain Israel Downing. He had 
known them from the cradle. They had sailed with him since they first 
trod the deck, and he was ready to trust them anywhere 

9 



J 



IO A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 

They were orphan boys whose fathers had died at sea, and were 
only related by ties of the warmest, life-long friendship, but hand in 
hand they had gone to school, and now they were fighting their way 
together, into that same field of hardship and adventure where their 
fathers and their grandfathers had lived and fought and died. 

The boat was lowered. Four sailors pulled the oars, another stood 
in the prow, and the second mate held the tiller rope. They had hardly 
touched the water when the word was given and they pulled away for 
the drifting boat tossing to and fro in its mute appeal for sympathy. 

It was a fair-sized row boat. They could easily make out an oar, 
thrust into the mast-hole forward, made fast with an end of rope, bearing 
some poor fellow's shirt, swinging as the boat swung on the heavy 
sea, waving, still, the flag of distress, for some unfortunate human 
being. 

Loose ends of rope hung over the side, lapping the water as the boat 
tossed about, but even now there was no sign of life. 

" Stand by with the boat-hook, Mike," the mate said solemnly. 

" Aye, aye, sir," replied the man in the prow, in the same low voice, 
for distress at sea touches every sailor's heart. 

It was a moment of intense excitement for Scott and Roy. They had 
never before been so near to the reality of suffering, though from their 
earliest cradle songs to the latest sailor's yarn, their lives had been filled 
with the romance of distress. 

Sitting with their backs to the boat they could not see it, and they 
were too well drilled to look over their shoulders while pulling an oar. 
They heard Mike's boat-hook as it caught the drifting boat, however, 
and a moment later it came alongside. They rested on their oars and 
all eyes were fixed upon the boat, but no one spoke, for there in the 
bottom lay three dead bodies, and stretched across them the body of a 
man who evidently was still alive, though entirely unconscious. The 
mate leaned over him for a moment; then taking the boat in tow they 
returned as quickly as possible to the brig. 

The Louise returned to the Banks and the fishing continued. One 
gang would fish all day with lines or seines and another, on board the 
brig, was kept busy cleaning the fish ; dumping the livers into great tanks 
prepared for the purpose on the deck, scraping the bodies and throwing 
them down into the hold, where they were packed in salt to keep them 
till they came to port, where they could be dried. 



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A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



13 



Down in the cabin the rescued man lay between life and death. He 
had recovered consciousness, but there was little hope that he could live. 

One afternoon Scott was on duty watching the gauge. It was in 
a sort of bulkhead, directly under the cabin where the sick man lay, and 
in fair weather, for light and ventilation a hatch was removed, under 
the bunk, leaving only a wooden grating in the floor. 

From his position just under this grating Scott could not avoid hear- 
ing every word that was spoken in the cabin, and while he watched the 




CLEANING THE COD. 



gauge the poor fellow above him told a story to the captain thac at once 
became so intensely interesting to Scott that he could not have forced 
himself to lose a single word, even if he had realized that he was over- 
hearing what was not intended for him. 

The man said he was an officer sent from Russia to find a family 
named Lester. Seventeen years before a man, James Lester, officer on 
an American vessel, while at Sebastopol married the daughter of a 



14 



A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



wealthy Russian, against her father's will. He disowned her, and she 
sailed for America with her husband. A year later a daughter was born 
and the husband died. Nothing further was known. In the mean- 
time the Russian father's remaining child had died, and recently upon 




CODFISHING. 



his own deathbed he willed his immense fortune to this sranddauo-hter. 
Supplied with the necessary papers, the officer had come to find the girl, 
to take her to Russia to prove her identity and receive her property. 
The steamer upon which he sailed was burned at sea, and with the other 
unfortunates in the rescued boat he had made a struggle for life. 

Captain Downing took the papers, promising to keep them safely, and 
carry him at once to the person whom he sought. 

Then all was still in the cabin and Scott sat watching the srauo-e and 
thinking;. It was one of those strange coincidences where the driftwood 
on Life's ocean is driven right where it is required. Not far from the 
house which sheltered Scott when he was on shore, in the bleak little 
sea-beaten village, there lived a widow, Mrs. James Lester, with an only 
daughter, Vera, sixteen years old. Scott well remembered being told 
that she was named for her grandmother, who was a Russian. And 



A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



15 



now, unless he was dreaming — and he was as sure as sure could be that 
he was not — Vera Lester was to receive an immense fortune. 

In the timid, modest fashion of the wild coast Scott thought of Vera 
as the prettiest, the sweetest, the dearest girl in all the world, and Vera as 
she wandered among the pines and white birches growing on the bluff, 
accompanied by an old and almost blind Siberian hound, would stand 
looking away over the water, surging in angry waves, or glistening and 
flashing in the sun, thinking of that same strong, handsome sailor-boy. 

Now it suddenly occurred to him that if Vera should go to Russia, 
to be a great lady, she would never care what might become of him. 







PACKING THE CODFISH. 



Scott was glad for Vera, however, and the moment he was relieved 
he hastened to tell Roy all that he had overheard. 

Captain Downing's wife was dead and his only child, Louise, for 
whom the brig was named, lived with her grandmother, in one of 



16 



4 STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



the largest houses in the village. Roy thought as much of her as Scott 
thought of Vera, and the four had always been the best of friends. 

Captain Downing was a stern officer, and the boys did not venture 
to tell him what they knew; but Roy as he sat by his bunk mending 

a torn chaser, and Scott as he clung to his 
favorite retreat in the rigging, when off 
duty, sure that he was studying navigation 
with all his might, kept constantly revolv- 
ing the matter in their minds, 
feeling as happy, for Vera, as 
though the immense fortune 
were falling to themselves. 

A few days later the stranger 
died, and with the limited pos- 
sibilities of the brig was buried 
off the coast of Newfoundland. 
The event cast a sfloom over 
the superstitious sailors. Bad 
weather set in and luck seemed 
entirely to have left them, so 
that every one was glad when the cap- 
tain set sail for home, saying that he 
would sell out the catch as it was and 
return in time for another haul, if fort- 
une favored him. 
Vera and Louise were glad to have the boys at home again, even for 
a few days, for it is dull enough in such a village when all the men are 
on the sea. They put on their best clothes, and Scott and Roy dressed 
as though they never had been sailors, and with games and picnics the 
days flew swiftly that had dragged so slowly before. But the boys had 
a burden upon their minds that, from being a pleasure at first, became a 
tormenting pain with long keeping. 

Day after day they waited and wondered why Captain Downing did 
not tell the good news to Mrs. Lester, when they would tell the girls 
how they had known it all the time. 

One afternoon Roy borrowed a boat of one of the neighbors, and 
while the skipper lay smoking in the prow, he and Louise sailed up 
and down the bay. 




ROYAL SAR 




VKRA LOOKING OUT TO SEA. 



A STRANG E DISCOVERY. 



19 



Had it not been for the presence of the skipper, Roy thought what a 
glorious opportunity to have whispered the secret to Louise ; and he lived 
to regret very bitterly that he let the opportunity slip away. He even 
opened his mouth to speak, but noticing that the skipper was watching 
him he said nothing. 

"To-morrow I will tell her," he thought, forgetting that "to-morrow" 
is a day that never comes ; and 
many a thrilling adventure and 
thousands of miles of space inter- 
vened between that hour and the 
next time when he was able to 
speak to the little girl beside him. 

Not long after daylight the 
next morning, while Roy was still 
dreaming of floating about some- 
where, with Louise, Scott burst 
into his room and catching him 
up by the shoulder, cried: 

" Roy ! Roy ! wake up ! Cap- 
tain Downing has sailed with a 
cargo of salt and provisions and 
taken Louise with him ! " 

" Great Scott !" exclaimed Roy, 
sitting up in bed and rubbing his 
eyes. " Scott Campbell, if you're 
yarning" — 

" I'm not yarning, this weather, 
Roy. There's too big a sea on 
for me to set that sail. I tell you 
the brig has been gone three hours and more. Louise's grandmother 
came over to see if I was aboard. She's scared to death. She says 
Captain Downing came home about midnight last night, and said he was 
going to start for the Banks on the night-tide and take Louise with him, 
and he did, in spite of the old lady." 

" Have they really gone? " asked Roy. 

" What in the world have I been telling you ? " cried Scott. 

" Gone without telling Mrs. Lester? " 

" Yes ; and it looks to me like ugly business." 




SCOTT CAMPBELL. 



20 



A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



" How?" 

"Why, it's this way. You know he didn't dream that any one knew 
of it but himself and that dead man. He has been at home ten days 
without saying a word to a living soul about it. Now he's off again be- 
tween two days, and nobody knew he was going. It's the first time since 
we could haul a rope that he hasn't taken us with him. He's taken a 
crew of only eight men and all strangers from the craft that came in with 
a leak last night. He took Louise out of bed, without her knowing any- 




THE DAYS ON SHORE. 



thing about it, and carried her down to the brig. That's a queer kind of 
crew and cargo for codfishinp- on the Banks." 

" If he hasn't gone daft, what in the name of wonder is he up to ? " 
Roy asked deliberately. 

" Do you want me to tell you what I think ? " said Scott, stuffing his 
hands hard into his pockets and leaning back against the wall. 



A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 



21 



" 'Course I do, Scott. Fire away. I guess I'm wide enough awake 
to understand." 

" Do you suppose he could take Louise over there to Russia and 
make folks think she was Vera, and get that money ? " 

" I more think he's gone stark mad," said Roy, deliberately clasping 
his hands about one bare knee, for he was much calmer by nature than 




THE SKIPPER WAS WATCHING HIM. 



Scott. " In the first place, salt would be a mighty poor cargo to take to 
Russia, unless he did it for a blind. I reckon he's very short for ready 
money, too, and I don't believe he could go far away from his brig if he 
had to pay his own expenses ; and when all's said and done he's not in 
Russia yet, by a very large majority, even if he's headed that way, and 
it's Louise he's got with him and not Vera. If he does go there, and 
tries to make that girl pretend she's some one else, and cheat another 
girl, he'll find he's everlastingly out of his reckoning, every day of the 
week, or I don't know Louise Downing." Then, very deliberately, Roy 
began to dress. 

There was evidently something wrong, however, and the boys at once 
consulted Mrs. Lester. 



CHAPTER II. 



REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 



THE result of the interview was perplexing. Mrs. Lester admitted 
the truth of the story of her life, which no one in America knew, 
as her husband died shortly after Vera was born, leaving her only the 
low-roofed cottage which she had never seen, the Siberian hound which 
she had taken with her, a little puppy from her home, and the baby Vera. 
In circumstances so changed she had preferred to remain unknown. She 
could not find a box of jewels which she had always carefully treasured, 
which she brought from home, nor could she find her marriage certifi- 
cate, but she refused to believe anything wrong of her neighbor Captain 
Downing, and requested the boys to let the matter drop. She even 
made them promise not to speak of it to any one, but they went away 
more convinced than ever that they were right, and that Captain Down- 
ing was wrong. 

" Scott," said Roy, " we haven't much to work with, but we've got our 
hands and feet and heads, and maybe we can accomplish something by 
ourselves. If he's gone mad, Louise is in bad weather and ought to 
have help. If he's cheating, Vera will suffer if we don't lend a hand. 
But we want to get our bearings before we set our helm. Suppose you 
cruise round town and find out all you can, and I'll borrow Dick Rhodes' 
fishing boat, stock her for two or three days, and see if I can overhaul 
anything coming from toward the Banks that may have sighted the 
Lottise." 



REMARKABLE DE VEL OPMENTS. 



23 



" I'll do it," said Scott, and grasping Roy's hand for a moment, turned 
to his new work as a sort of detective, with a success that thoroughly 
alarmed him, while Roy went out to sea. 

He found that the moment the brig reached the wharf, Captain 
Downing disposed of his cargo for cash ; that he purchased a cargo of 
salt and large stock of provisions on credit, saying he had promised to 
carry supplies to several of the bankers that were running short ; that he 
had mortgaged his house and farm for all that he could raise, and had 
even mortgaged the brig. By accident, Scott also learned that he 
had procured many sworn statements concerning Vera and her mother, 
and other incidents which left no doubt as to what his intentions were. 

The barometer had been steadily falling while he worked, and the 
wind and sea were rising. Scott sleDt but little the second night. He 
was too anxious about Roy. He wished him safe on shore again. 

The third morning the barometer was lower than ever, and such a 
tempest was howling along the coast as had never been known by the 
oldest dwellers by the sea. 

Dense fog was hurled in heavy clouds from the ocean, completely 
engulfing the little town. The wind roared in a furious hurricane and 




KOY BEGINS HIS SEARCH. 



the wild waves dashed over the stone pier, hurled themselves fiercely 
among the ragged ledges on either side and even flung their salt spray 
defiantly against the doors and windows of the nearest cottages. 

Scott was out with the earliest daylight, clad in his oil coat and hat, 
looking for Roy. Laboriously he made his way along the pier where a 
few of the villagers kept him company ; such as had a father, husband, 



24 REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 

brother or son on some of the nearer fishing grounds. It was a sad and 
anxious company, and Scott was sad and anxious, too.' He knew that 
Roy could handle a boat as well as any one on the coast, but he had 
gone into deep water with a frail craft. Scott shuddered as he looked 
out over the foaming sea and muttered between his teeth : " No yacht 




THE LITTLE HARBOR LEDGE IN FAIR WEATHER. 



that floats, with the best sailor who ever hauled a rope, could weather 
this gale an hour. If Rov has not found shelter he is lost." 

As the day wore on the storm increased, and a larger company of 
anxious watchers gathered on the pier. Few words were spoken, and 
the answers were few and short. It was impossible to hear above the 
roar of the tempest unless one shouted, and there was little to say that 
was important enough for that. When a wave rose fiercer and higher 
than the rest and dashed itself over the pier and about their feet, and 
the wind hurled its burden of blinding spray into their faces and lashed the 
protruding abutments of the wharf, a groan rose from that solemn com- 
pany, coming from the depths of every heart that was beating there. 

Suddenly that silent crowd was roused to the most intense excite- 
ment, and the cold blood was sent throbbing through their veins. The 
boom of a cannon sounded. The last cry for help, from some ship in 
distress. It was close at hand ! It shook the pier! The people, all life 
and earnestness now, pressed out to the end of the wharf, regardless of 
the breakers dashing toward them and often gurgling about their feet. 

The rain was falling in torrents now, cutting away the fog, and a 
moment later, as another peal thundered its call for help, a huge black 
outline could be faintly seen, floundering and rolling helplessly among 




RUSHING TO THE WEATHER RIGGING. 



REMARKABLE DE VEL OPMENTS. 



2 7 



the waves, plunging onward before the gale toward a ragged ledge, upon 
the other side of the wharf, which in fair weather formed a breakwater 
to protect the little harbor, but to-day meant inevitable death to anything 
approaching it. 

In fifteen minutes that vessel would be drifting past the wharf, not 
five hundred feet away. In half an hour it would be dashed to pieces 
upon that ledge. 

Could nothing be done to save it? Brave men looked helplessly at 
each other. 

Lives! human lives! Fathers! brothers! sons! Women and chil- 




A HUGE, BLACK OUTLINE. 



dren, too, perhaps, were there. Should they stand still and see them 
drift to destruction before their very eyes ? 

One boat was on the pier. It could not live a moment in that sea, 
but in the agony of their desire the men and women seized it, and pushed 
it into the water. The first wave dashed it against the stonework, the 
next splintered it from stem to stern, and the third, with a mocking 
roar, threw the pieces back again upon the pier. 



28 



REMARKABL E DE VEL OPMENTS. 



Once more the men looked at each other, and the women clung to 
their helpless arms as another boom came from the drifting wreck. 

Only one mortal moved upon the pier. He came running from the 
storehouse with a huge coil of small rope slung over his shoulder. He 
threw it down, quick as thought tore off his clothes, thrust his arms 
through 'a loop in the rope so that the end was held fast behind his head, 
and stood, for one instant, looking calmly down into a great gully, glisten- 
ing and black, between two monstrous waves, upon the lee side of the 

stone pier. Then he turned 
to an old sailor who stood 
nearest him and shouted : 

" Pay her out, steady and 
free! Have a cable ready 
for the end if I get there, 
and tell Roy Sargent where 
I went if I don't come back." 
The sailor's hand was 
stretched out to restrain him 
from such madness, but he 
saw it coming-, and with one 
bound sprang into the angry 
breakers, as far as possible 
from the pier. 

The old sailor caught up 
the rope and paid it out, 
inch by inch, but his bronzed 
face was white and his strong 
hands trembled. Wave after 
wave mounted the wharf and 
curled about his feet, but he 
did not notice them. The 
wind shrieked and the rain poured in torrents in his face, but his 
eyes never left the rope for one instant. Now it drifted back a lit- 
tle on an incoming wave, and with a shudder he drew it in. Then it 
would glide out again, and with a sigh he aided it to slip freely through 
his fingers. 

" Has some one gone ? " 

' Is some one swimming for the wreck ? " 




"PAY HER OUT, STKADY AND FREE!' 



REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 



29 




" Swimming in that sea ? " 

" Who is it ? " 

" Who has dared ? " came in gasps from pale lips, as trembling figures 
crowded again to the end of the pier, or stood shuddering and shaking 
their heads about the old sailor, whose only reply was : 

" Scott Campbell is swimming to the wreck," and one and another, as 
the word passed from lip to lip, muttered : 

"God help him!" 

For an instant some one would catch a 
glimpse of brown hair or a white arm as the 
boy rose on a smaller wave, and eagerly point- 
ing it out the crowd would try to cheer; but 
the cheer died in a groan as the next great 
wave swept over it, and their hearts stood still 
lest the boy should never live to come out on 
the other side. 

Thus eleven minutes passed that seemed 
like a lifetime, and the old sailor still paid out. 
The black hulk, rolling, floundering, plunging 
on, was almost abreast the wharf. Those who 
had brought glasses with them would hastily wipe the salt spray from 
the lens and for a moment catch a glimpse of sailors clutching the 
weather rigging, clinging to rope ladders, climbing higher and higher in 
a desperate struggle to get away from the surging breakers which swept 
the deck below. 

They had fired their last signal. They had given themselves up. 

Twelve minutes ! Where was that atom of white among the breakers? 
Trembling hands passed glasses from one to another. No one could find 
it. It seemed an hour since they had seen it last. Had Scott Campbell 
given up? Was he gone! gone ! gone! Or if he were still struggling, 
might they not drift past him without seeing the boy who was fighting 
with those angry waves to save them ? 

Thirteen minutes ! The old sailor was upon his knees, on the very 
edge of the pier, bending anxiously forward, regardless of the tempest, 
of the excitement about him, of the waves that sometimes half-covered 
him. He held the rope between his thumb and finger as though it were 
a thread of glass. His breath came short and sharp. His eyes were 
riveted upon that line as it rose and fell, floating upon each incoming 



THE ULI) SAILOR- 



3o 



REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 



wave. It faltered. His brow contracted. It fell back with the next wave. 
With a sharp cringe he drew it in a little that it might not be fouled 
upon the pier. It rested there a moment. The old sailor did not 
breathe. It fell back again. With a groan he let his hands drop and 
the rope drift. 

What was that ? It made a sharp dart forward ! It slipped from his 
fingers ! He started, caught it in his hand, stared for an instant, then 
sprang to his feet, and in a voice that sounded clear and shrill above the 
tempest, he shouted : 

" Glory to God ! Stand by with the cable ! Scott Campbell has 
reached the wreck ! " 



CHAPTER III. 



A WILL AND A WAY. 



WHEN the sun rose the next morning, the stormy clouds were 
drifting away from it and the waves were wearing themselves 
out. The great hull, black and bare, swept clean above the deck, from 
stem to stern had been hauled up as far as possible, stranded and made 
fast by strong cables, with the cargo still intact, and every soul on board 
safely transported to the shore ; while boisterous sea-gulls, hundreds of 
them, filled the air, diving and splashing in the water about the wreck, 
having a grand and noisy feast to welcome the returning sunshine. 

The family of the owner of the vessel and cargo, a wealthy ship- 
owner, were on board the wreck. He had been telegraphed for and 
arrived in the afternoon. He sent at once for Scott, who found him sit- 
ting upon an iron bench by the door of the house where his family had 
taken refuge. 

" Young man," he exclaimed, grasping Scott's hand — then he stopped 
and for a moment was unable to speak. At last he continued: " I have 
a very valuable cargo down in that hold, and my wife and children were 
on board for a summer holiday. I watched them sailing away, little 
thinking of this end. You saved me a great deal of money, but infinitely 
more you saved to me the lives of my wife and children. I can never 
repay you, but I beg you to let me hand you this. It is nothing. I shall 
try and do something more for you if I can find the opportunity." He 
put an envelope into Scott's hand and added, with tears in his eyes, " Be 

3' 



3 2 



A WILL AND A WAY. 



as generous as you were brave, my boy. Do not think it is given you as 
pay for your noble deed and scorn it as such, but for my sake make 
use of it, and let me know whenever I can be of service to you." 

At that moment Roy came running down the road. He cleared the 




' I WATCHED THEM SAILING AWAY.' 



fence at a bound. Scott stuffed the envelope into his pocket and in a 
moment forgot all about it as he clasped Roy in his arms. 

The shipowner looked on in kindly admiration as Roy exclaimed: 

" I've just heard all about it, Scott. What a hero you are ! I always 
knew you were just the fellow who could do it ; but there's not another 
man upon the coast who could." 

" Or who would have dared to try," added the shipowner, eagerly. 

" Let up on that, now, Roy," Scott exclaimed impatiently, and very 
much embarrassed. '' You have doubtless heard a great deal too much 
about me, but I've had no chance to hear a word about you. You'd 
have done better than I in the same place. You always do ; but go 
ahead now, and tell me where you've kept yourself " 




THE STRANDED HULL. 



A WILL AND A WAY. 



35 



" There's an account in print that blows my horn for me," said Roy, 
laughing and handing Scott a newspaper. " Of course it's much better 
than I deserve, but I never thought of being ashamed. In fact, I was 
rather proud of it. I was going to show it to you with a tremendous 
nourish, till I got in on the afternoon stage, and heard how far ahead of 
me you were, and that kind of took the wind out of my sails, I tell you." 

" Let up, I say ! " Scott exclaimed sharply, glancing from the news- 
paper. " Now go ahead and tell me where you have been." 

Roy threw himself carelessly upon the bench and replied, in his old, 
deliberate way : 

" Well, I was aboard Dick's boat till she was stove to smithereens. 
Then I was on a steamer. Can you believe it, I've walked the bridge as 
pilot and been paid for it, too, so I have. 
I was off Eagle Ledge 
when the storm struck in 
— by the way, the Louise 




" WHEN THE STORM STRUCK IN. 

did go to the Banks, but I'm pretty sure she didn't stop there. It's 
my opinion sbx 5 i:eok her cargo of salt to St. John's for a blind; 
but I'll tell you : I ran into the cove and pulled up on the rocks 
to wait till I could run home. You know there's a steam foe horn 
on the ledge and a bell buoy off the point. The fog shut down with 
a steamer in sight and a sail near to. Well, the bell buoy broke 



36 



A WILL AND A WAY. 





loose the first thing and drifted on to the rocks, half a mile above 
me. Then something silenced the fog horn. In the very worst of 
the storm it stopped working. All of a sudden I heard the steam- 
er's fog whistle, off to windward ; it was blowing and slashing like mad, 

and I thought if that steamer was 

I „ %fc hunting for the buoy and fog horn 

> ^ J jt f^aTgjS" she was more than likely to run her 

nose right into the rocks. By good 
luck I got mv boat into the water, 
between two waves, flung out sail 
enough to catch a hatful of the gale, 
and let her go for the steamer's 
whistle. In ten minutes I was in 
sight of her. Jehu ! but she was an 
ocean steamer, drifting like mad 
dead on to the ledge. I yelled, but 
they couldn't hear me. They saw 
something was wrong, however, and 
lay to, and stopped her. They 
threw me_ a line, but it was no use. 
I saw I'd got to get on board, some 
way, to make them understand, for 
the wind alone was carrying them 
four or five knots an hour, so I 
worked round to windward, went broadside on, and when a wave slung 
me up against her I jumped for all I was worth. I went clean over and 
landed, sprawled out at full length on the deck, in a foot or more of salt 
water. It didn't take me long to give the captain his points, you bet. 
" ' Do you know this coast ? ' he shouted. 
" ' Every inch of it, sir,' I yelled. 

" ' Where's Sheep Island ? ' he asked, and a half-dozen other points 
in the same way, and I gave them to him quick as I could breathe. 

"' Come up on the bridge,' he said, by way of winding up, and there 
was nothing for me but to obey, for you see Dick's boat was smashed 
and o-one adrift. All my stores were at the bottom of the sea, and I had 
no money to pay my fare, so 'twas either work my passage or be put 
ashore to walk home. I worked it, I tell you. Oh! but it's fun being 
pilot, if you only had time enough to appreciate it. Coffee, soup, every 




THE BELL BUOY. 




n 



A WILL AND A WAY. 



39 



thing, all served on the bridge, and everybody, from the captain down, 
dancing about to make you comfortable. The trouble is, that the 
thought that you've got a big steamer on your hands in a roaring hurri- 
cane, is worse than the gale in your face for taking your wind away, and 
I didn't think of anything but rocks until I was on shore again. It was 
a little after dark when we sighted the island light, just as I said we 
should, and as the steamer was leaking badly, the captain ran into port. 
He wanted me to stay aboard till he heard from the Company, but I told 
him if he'd give me enough to pay Dick for his boat and buy a ticket 

home on the cars, I'd like to be 

le said 
fee be- 




side, and insisted on 
my taking a roll of 
bills, and before I got 
away the passengers 
crowded round and 
stuffed another roll 
into my pocket. I 
was so confused I 
didn't know what to 
do, and when I was 
safely on board the 

cars, and counted it up, what do you think ? There was over seven hun- 
dred dollars ! How's that for a starter toward following the brig Louise? 
It was a great deal more than I deserved, of course, but as we passed 



"I JUMPED FOR ALL I WAS WORTH.' 



40 



A WILL AND A WAY. 



the light, there lay a big ship, with sails still set, high and dry upon the 
rocks, and I suppose the steamer folks thought they were better off out 
of such a predicament, even if it did cost them something." 

The shipowner said good-by as he was leaving with his family, 
earnestly thanking Scott again, and urging him to call upon him when- 
ever he could be of service, and the boys wandered down to the coast, 
still talking over their adventures, when Scott suddenly thought of the 




" WE SIGHTED THE LIGHT." 

envelope in his pocket. He broke the seal, and the two boys sat in blank 
astonishment, staring at the contents. It was a check, payable to Scott 
Campbell, for ten thousand dollars. 

Scott's first thought was to return it, but he remembered the tears in 
the donor's eyes when he asked him to be as generous as he had been 
brave, and turning to Roy he said earnestly : 

" It is a gift from God, to use in securing Vera Lester's rights. If you 
are with me, Roy, we'll fit out the best boat we can get, and the largest 



A WILL AND A WAY. 



41 



we can handle, and we'll follow Captain Downing to the end of the 
world." 

"Over land and sea!" said Roy, grasping Scott's hand; "through 
Arctics and Tropics, I'm with you, Scott, till we find that Captain 
Downino- is innocent, or force him to walk the deck as he should." 

So they pledged themselves for a longer, more formidable, more 
exciting chase than either of them dreamed, and set themselves at once 
to make their preparations. 




ROY'S STORY IN PRINT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 

NO time was to be lost. The boys borrowed a yacht, and, putting on 
their fishing clothes, that they might look precisely what they 
were, ran down the coast to the city, keeping a sharp lookout among the 
shipping as they entered the harbor, to see if such a craft as they wanted 
was there. 

" Do you see that steamer over there, Scott? " Roy asked. " That's 
the one I brought in, night before last. They've unloaded her, and are 
working her over to those docks there, for repairs, I guess. She was 
leaking pretty bad, they said." 

Coming up to the wharf, Scott sat in the boat while Roy, as the 
acknowledged " business man " of the little corporation, went up to make 
inquiries concerning several sloops and yachts which lay at anchor. 

Almost the first man he met was the captain of the steamer, who 
grasped his hand, and at once introduced him to the manager of the line, 
who had come on to attend to the disabled steamer. 

" I was going to hunt you up, Mr. Sargent," he said, "just as soon as 
I got the repairs under way. The Company is greatly indebted to you 
for the service you rendered. Now you have saved me wandering about 
in search of you, and I am greatly obliged to you for that, too," he added, 
with a pleasant smile. 

Roy was so embarrassed at hearing himself called " Mr. Sarsrent " for 
the first time in his life, that he hardly knew what he said. He tried 

4? 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



43 



to explain how he came there. The two men became interested, and 
before Roy realized it, by a few well-directed questions they had come at 
the whole story. 

" You think he's gone into the Arctic Ocean, do you, and that he is 
iikely to cross to Norway, 
and you propose to follow 



him 



up 



? Well, I sailed in 




ice-water three seasons when 
I was young, and I can tell 
you that a craft which you 
two could manage could 
not weather four-and-twenty 
hours, nor could you run any- 
thing but square-rigged, with 
safety, where ice is thick. I 
happen to know of a tough 
little duck of less than a hun- 
dred tons, that took a relief 
party to Melville Bay, on the 
northwest coast, last summer. 
She has two masts, square- 
rigged, is triple sheathed with 
wood and iron at the bows for 
ice. She's a little beauty. 
Five men can handle her in 
the worst weather. Two can 
sail her in a fair sea. She 
has her old ice-tackle still intact, and three days can see her ready to 
leave the dock. You would need four good seamen, who understand ice- 
water, and a cook who understands hot water. You and your friend 
could divide the honors of captain and mate, if you understand 
navigation ; do you ? " 

" Aye, aye, sir, from A to Z ! " Roy exclaimed, glad of an opportunity 
to put in a word. " Though it is pretty much all we do understand, 
except codfishing. But such a vessel as you speak of, sir, is " — 

" I know what you would say, Mr. Sargent — Captain, I suppose I 
should call you now — but allow me to say: Our company has instructed 
me to find you, and to do for you anything that, in my judgment, will be 



KEEPING A SHARP LOOKOUT. 



44 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



most acceptable. If this bark — I think she is registered as a bark, 
though a queer one — if she meets your approval, I propose to charter 
and provision her for a year, fit her out, and put on board for that time 
four seamen and a cook, at the expense of the S. S. Company. If you 
are through with her before, send her home. If you want her longer, let 
me know. Our company has never yet lost a passenger, but if it had not 
been for you, very few of the lives on that steamer could have been saved. 




DO YOU SEE THAT STEAMER?" 



Now I beg of you, Captain Sargent, do not say a word. This is a purely 
business transaction on our part, and we request you so to consider it. 
Get your friend and come aboard our tender. We will run right down 
and look at the bark." 

There was nothing to say, and Roy really did a very sensible thing 
when he simply touched his hat, sailor fashion, and disappeared for Scott. 

Three days later they returnd to the city by rail, accompanied by 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



45 



Mrs. Lester and Vera. The bark was hauled into open water by a 
tender, and as Roy and Scott rowed out in the gig to meet her and take 
command, Mrs. Lester waved them a God-speed from the wharf, and Vera 
watched until her blue eyes were so full of tears that she could see noth- 
ing but one great gleam of light. 

The boys had an animated controversy as to which shouia command. 
Scott declared that the vessel was Roy's and that Roy was captain, and 
finally carried the day, with the agreement that Scott, as the one who 
was really the prime mover, should be first mate on deck, but admiral in 
the cabin, and should have the general direction of the voyage. 

The bark was named Snowbird. Two of the seamen and the 




jjiGBjafo 




*■$ 



MRS. LESTKK AND VLKA. 



cook had sailed in her before, while the other two were old whalers. 
Their first point was the Newfoundland Banks, and the run was all that 
could have been wished. As they came among the codfishers, Scott 
took his position at the masthead to look out for the brig Louise, but, 
though they spoke several bankers, no tidings were heard from her till 



4 6 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



they came to port at St. John's, at the southeastern extremity of the island. 

They had both of them been on shore at St. John's before, so that their 

eyes and thoughts were bent wholly 
upon business. First, they made 
sure that the Louise was not at an- 
chor in the almost land-locked bay. 
Then they crossed the bay and 
dropped anchor, and Scott and 
Roy, having made the first step in 
safety, took the gig and rowed 
ashore, to the quiet, quaint, steep- 
roofed old town lying opposite the 
narrow entrance. 

"St. John's looks very unlike 
an American city, but its hardy, 
hospitable people would make any 
one feel at home," Scott observed, 
as they were warmly welcomed by 
one and another who only knew of 
them that they were sailor boys. 

They did not have to apply to 
the American consul, as they ex- 
pected, for every one was ready to 

answer questions, and every one at St. John's seemed to know about 

every one else there, and every one who had ever been there. 

" Yes ! The brig Louise ran in here some two weeks ago," said one 

of the wharf officers. " She had a cargo of salt which she sold for cash 

at a low price, and took in a cargo of grain, flour and mixed stuff for two 

or three of the southern ports of Greenland. Captain said he had agreed 

to go up there and fetch back overstock from some whalers." 

The boys looked at each other, but said nothing. There were a few 

stores which were lacking in their outfit, which must be purchased at St. 

John's, and while they were wandering about the quaint old streets, Scott 

slipped into a jewelry store, closely followed by Roy. 

" What did you run into this port for ? " Roy asked, and Scott, with 

a decided blush, replied: 

" I thought we'd be writinsr to Mrs. Lester, from here, to tell her 

of our success so far, and maybe 'twouldn't be a bad idea to slip 




SCOTT AT THE MASTHEAD. 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



47 



m some little trinket for Vera, just to show her that we haven't forgot- 
ten her." 

" We ! " said Roy, with a merry laugh. " Bet yer best anchor, Scott, 
Vera isn't worrying for fear that I've forgotten her. She'd know I hadn't 
forgotten my old playfellow." 

Scott laughed too ; but he very carefully selected a little chain, with 
a cross attached, had it safely packed in a box and addressed. Then they 
took it to the post-office, registered it, and returned to the Snowbird. 



IN THE HARBOR AT ST. JOHN S. 



They wrote a letter to Mrs. Lester and sent it on shore by two of the 
sailors, who were to bring back the stores they had purchased, including 
a lot of fresh meat. Then they sat alone in the cabin ready to lay the 
course to Greenland. 

" I tell you what it is, Scott," said Roy, " I never dreamed what a 
terrible strain I was under, running up here, till the anchor dropped and 
we were in the gig. When I looked back and saw the Snowbird lying 



4 8 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



there, all in regulation ship-shape, and realized that you and I had brought 
her here, my knees began to shake, and I wondered how in the world we 
ever dared to do it." 

" It took me the other way," said Scott. " I knew the ground so far, 




A LITTLE TRINKET FOK VERA. 



and had faith in the captain, but when I saw that big lump of ice we 
passed just outside, and realized that when we went out through those 
narrows again it would be by a new path, for a new purpose that would 
lead us 1 no one knows where or for how long, my knees began to shake 
and, to tell the truth, they are shaking still. Roy, I wonder if I'm a 
coward." 

Roy laughed heartily and exclaimed, " Scott Campbell, if your knees 
were shaking till you could not stand, I'd give more for the courage you 
had left than for the whole stock of any two fellows on the coast." 

" Royal Sargent, let up ! " said Scott decidedly, " and when you come 
down again, let it be to business. So Captain Downing has gone to 
Greenland." 

" Well, what in the name of common sense has he done that for ? " 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



49 



" How should I know ? You know how often he remarked that 
4 Doubtful things is mighty onsartin.' " 

" I don't believe he's gone there at all," said Roy. " I believe he's 
simply gone daft." 

" Yes, he has," Scott replied, who was studying a large chart spread 
out upon the table. " It's hardly out of his way at all, if he's doing what 
I think and going to Russia, for he'd have to go north of Scotland, any 
way, and by lugging freight he is sort of paying his way, and throwing 
any one off the track at the same time. He's got a lot of money with 
him, you know, and he's working fair and foul for more, because he'll 
need it." 

" To say nothing of buying everything on credit and selling it for 
cash. It looks as though there was method in his madness, any way." 

" Why not go straight to Russia and head him off? " Scott exclaimed. 

" I don't believe he's going there. I believe he's parted a cable 
in his upper story, and I want to overtake him and save Louise," 
Roy replied. And Scott agreed, feeling ashamed that he had forgotten 
his friend's anxiety 
in his own. " Two 
points east of north 
and a straight course 
will fetch it," he said. 

At that moment 
there was a commo- 
tion on deck, and the 
boys rushed up. It 
was after nine o'clock 
at night, but the 
sun was still shining 
brightly. A hawk, 
chasing a small bird, 
had flown against the 
rigging and dropped 
dead upon the deck — at the feet of one of the sailors, forward. 

" Good enough for him ! " Scott exclaimed, but Roy, noticing the 
solemn faces of the two seamen and the cook, replied in a low voice : 

" But not for these superstitious sailors. They'll have it, every false 
wind that blows, that this was a warning;." 




THE CABIN OK THE SNOWBIRD. 



50 CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 

And Scott and Roy were quite sailors enough themselves to wish 
that it had not happened. 

"We are ten days behind the Louise" Scott said, as the men hauled 
up the anchor, and they all worked together setting sail. 

" It may be twenty, or it may be more, by the time we reach Green- 




A HAWK DROPPED DEAD UPON THE DECK. 



land," Roy replied ; and Scott, as he caught his eye, turned instinctively 
to the spot where the hawk fell. 

A light breeze set in from the sea as they worked their way out of 
the narrow inlet, and the great cliffs, the wave-washed ledges and the 
moss-green coves of Newfoundland quickly sank into a dense fog behind 
them, while the moonlight still lay, white and beautiful, over the sea. 

Both of the boys were serious and thoughtful that night. They had 
left behind them the last point of land with which they had ever been 
familiar. The}' were strangers now, in a world full of uncertainty. 

The sea breeze continued and increased. Morning dawned at two 
o'clock, and Scott's first work on coming- on deck for his watch, was to 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



51 



take in sail.. At night a little more sail was taken in, and the third night 
they were scudding along, careened almost to the water with only a 
single sail and jib. 

They had passed several " lumps of ice " of varying size, which, to 
Scott and Roy, ap- 
peared to be very fair 
icebergs, and proved 
intensely fascinating, 
but the old sailors paid 
them very little atten- 
tion till the third night, 
when one of them 
asked to be allowed 
to keep lookout watch 
forward. 

" Why, we are 
bowling along beauti- 
fully," Roy remarked ; 
" and there's not a 
rock between us and 
Cape Farewell." 

The old fellow 
touched his hat re- 
spectfully, and said: 

" We may be at a 
standstill, sir, before 
to-morrow night." 

" Ice ? " said Roy. 

" Ice, sir," replied 
the sailor. 

The possibility 
served to give the 
young captain a very 
wakeful nisbt, but 
twenty-four hours 

later found them still close hauled and still plunging forward, making 
nearly eight knots an hour, with the ice constantly increasing about 
them, and stormy petrels, with their warning cries, hovering near them. 




THE SNOWBIRD, THE MOONLIGHT AND THE SEA. 



52 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



Here and there real Arctic monsters now came bearing down upon 
them, rising far above the tops of their masts, and ten or twelve times 
longer than the Snowbird. They were often surrounded on the lee by a 
cluster of smaller bergs, while a cold gray mist settled down on the water, 
more treacherous than a fog, sometimes freezing as it fell, for an hour or 
more, making it almost impossible to stand upon the deck or handle the 
ropes and sails. 

After an unusually long ice-rain, early on the fifth morning, it began 

to snow. The wind blew a gale, and the 
-';/'. " v snow was so thick that it was hard to 

see the length of the Snowbird. Scott 
and a sailor held the helm. One sailor 
stood in the prow, and another sat at the 
masthead. Rov, one sailor and the cook, 
having been up all night, were sleeping, 
when the two lookouts, at the same instant, 
shouted : 

" Ship ahoy ! Dead ahead ! " 
Scott could see nothing, but at a vent- 
ure put his helm hard down to port. In- 
stantly the Snowbird took the hint, came 
into the wind, and lay rolling upon the great waves, as a steamer, sheathed 
in ice and snow from trucks to water-line, passed so close that the spray 
from her prow was dashed in Scott's face as he stood at the helm. 

They found it impossible to hold the course to the north, and fell off 
to the west, passing several large icebergs, glistening and gray, like 
frosted silver, and the air seemed as cold as at midwinter. It had become 
a common incident now, to bump into great lumps of ice, shaking the 
little Snotubird from stem to stern, but, thanks to the sheathing of the 
bows, doing no other damage. 

Before the snowstorm ceased Roy came on deck, and he and Scott 
held a consultation with the sailor whom they had appointed second 
mate, that he might act as a sort of Arctic guide. 

Ice anchors, cables and setting-gear were got in readiness, and none 
too soon, for above the roar of the tempest the ominous grinding and 
creakino- of pack-ice could be distinctly heard, and now and then a crash 
like thunder announced that two great icebergs had come together at no 
great distance. 




THE STORMY PETREL. 




SHE WAS TCF TO THE TRUCKS. 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



55 



An hour before sunset the alternating snow and sleet ceased alto- 
gether, as suddenly as it began. But what a scene met their eyes ! A 
solid mass of pack-ice, far as the eye could reach, was bearing down upon 
them from the open sea, while upon the port huge icebergs, surrounded 
by their guards of broken ice, were moving with the tide in the very eye of 
the wind. Behind them there seemed nothing but ice. How they had 
ever come through it was a mystery. 

Scott was at the helm. Roy stood braced against the mast. The 
Snowbird tossed like a cork upon the waves ; bumping, bumping, bump- 
ing against the floating ice. Here and there a rift appeared with open 
water, but the position of the ice changed so rapidly that it was 
impossible to take advantage of it. Upon the port bow a steamer was 
pushing her way through the ice. A thousand feet away one of the 




'THEY HEADED FOR THIS ICEBERG." 



largest icebergs was lying, motionless, apparently, in all the tumult. Roy 
talked for a moment with Scott, and they headed for this iceberg. 

Fortunately the veteran seamen needed only general directions to 
make fast upon the lee side of the iceberg, for the young commander, 



56 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 



who had never seen the operation, would have made poor work directing. 
He kept his eyes wide open, however, and the next time could command 
or take a hand himself. The berg was in the shape of an enormous 
mound on one side, ending in an abrupt ledge of gleaming ice on the 




" ROY, AXE IN HAND. 



other, while the gradually sloping side was surrounded at the base by a 
platform of smooth, flat ice. 

No sooner had the Snowbird touched the berg than the men were out 
on the ice with ice-anchors, forward and aft, and in fifteen minutes the 
little bark was held so fast that she scarcely moved with the waves. 

" We are surely safer here than dodging about in this gale," said Roy, 
and, anxious to make the most of every opportunity, the boys were soon 
out upon the ice. 

Their first discovery was a ship's anchor, caught in the ice. 

" It is the relic of some one in trouble," said Roy, " but it is heavier 
than ours and we may need it." 



CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 57 

He went for an axe to cut it free, when Scott discovered a brig in the 
distance, dodging and tacking in the gale, trying to find a way out from 
among large icebergs closing in upon her. 

" I'm going to take a look at her in the gig," Scott exclaimed, and be- 
fore Roy could remonstrate he was pulling away over the waves, and 
Roy, axe in hand, stood watching the brig in its struggle and the little 
boat midway. It might be the Louise. 

Scott was half-way across the open water which divided the two 
masses of ice when she made a desperate dash to cut her way through, 
failed, fell away with the ice packing behind her, careened almost to cap- 
sizing, caught the wind again and made a dash for a narrow rift between 
two icebergs. Even Roy, from the distance, knew better than that. 

" Fools ! " he muttered in his excitement. " Port your helm ! Lie to 
and let her come." They did not hear him, however, more than a mile 
away. They entered the rift between two huge icebergs that were ap- 
proaching each other, because they saw clear water beyond, and it was a 
last extremity. The moment they were under the lee of one they lost 
their wind and headway. It was too late for the boats ;■ too late for any- 
thing. With a crash which shook the ice where Roy was standing, and 
echoed like the roar of cannon along the sea, the two crystal mountains 
plunged against each other and became one pyramid of ice, with the brig 
and every one on board buried in its silent heart. 

The yawl was lowered from the Snowbird, and Roy with two seamen 
followed Scott, but two hours later returned without a trace of the wreck, 
except a deck water-cask which must have gone overboard when she 
careened. 

The cask was marked " Chieftain, New York." 

" So it was not the Louise, at any rate," said Roy, with a deep sigh. 

" No, thank God," Scott added fervently. " But it has taught me a 
good lesson — to respect these monsters. And it makes me much more 
thankful than proud, to know that the Snowbird is still safe." 



CHAPTER V. 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



THE sea calmed down very quickly, and the boys slept soundly, leav- 
ing the Snowbird in charge of the second mate, who was naturally 
better than either of them to watch the progress of the ice. 

It seemed only a moment, and, indeed, it was less than three hours 
when he called them again to see the sun rise. It was a wonderful sight. 
A silver-gray haze hung over everything. The water was still full of ice, 
but it was no longer boisterous or dangerous, while the sun, piercing the 
frosty mist, transformed each iceberg, large and small, to a mass of 
tangled rainbows. The very air was full of beautiful rainbows. The 
larger bergs were marvelous in their gorgeous coloring. The boys left 
the bark, and taking several instruments and a glass with them, made 
their way to the top of the iceberg. 

A steamer was slowly moving southward about a mile away. Scott 
wanted to hail her, but there was a great deal of floating ice between 
them, and Roy was afraid that if they made her come so far out of her 
way just to tell two boys if she had seen the Louise, the captain would 
be so angry he would not answer, and they let her go. 

There is always a powerful fascination to the stranger in the grand 
sights of the Arctic Ocean, and the boys turned reluctantly to their in- 
struments to locate their position, as this was the first time they had seen 
the sun for nearly four days. 

58 







£&i^ 



s, 

1 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



61 



They heard the sailors down below, filling the water tanks from the 
streams of fresh water trickling down the side of the iceberg, and were 
busily engaged upon their calculations, when the berg beneath them be- 
gan to swing very slowly. 

They started to their feet. There was a shout from below, and catch- 
ing up their instruments they hurried down. 

As they ran toward the bark, two of the sailors were pulling on the 
forward anchor and one working frantically at the rope from the stern, 
while the poor little Snowbird was pulled way over and almost capsized! 

" Cut loose that aft anchor, sir ! " yelled the second mate, from the deck. 

" Get on board, quick, Roy, with this thing," Scott exclaimed, handing 

*3 




"IT WAS A WONDERFUL SIGHT." 

Roy the instrument he was carrying and pulling his sailor's knife from 
his belt. Roy sprang on to the deck with his precious burden just as 
Scott cut the cable. It snapped with a sharp twang like the breaking of 
some huge violin string. The Snowbird, suddenly set free, slid off & the 
ice, dove into the water, taking a great gulp of it over her bows, and shot 
away, out upon the waves. 



62 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



Scott had no time to speculate upon his position, for the iceberg 
swung back once more, hesitated an instant, then with a resounding 
crash gave a great lurch, and ice-water of the coldest and sharpest was 
gurgling in his ears, blinding his eyes and rushing past him like a furious 

river. He realized that a 
part of the iceberg at least, 
must be on top of him bear- 
ing him down, and had just 
presence of mind left to put 
one hand over his mouth and 
hold his nose with the other. 
When he became con- 
scious again he was still un- 
der water, sliding rapidly in 
some direction along the 
smooth ice. He thousrht he 
was drowning, but just as he 
was about to give up he saw 
a gleam of light above him, 
struck out with mio;ht and 
main, and an instant later 
shot out of the water as far 
as his waist, with the bright 
sun full in his face. The 
iceberg was behind him. He 
was so benumbed by cold 
that he was hardly more than 
conscious, but while he struggled to keep his head above and catch his 
breath, he heard Roy calling: 

" All right, Scott. Hold there a second. Are you hurt ? " 
" Guess not," he gasped, " but cold. Colder'n Greenland ! " 
A moment later Roy was beside him. He was too cold to help him- 
self, and the gig was too light to pull him in, so Roy could simply hold 
on to him till another boat with two sailors came up. 

" Jehu ! " said Roy, when they had Scott at last safe in the cabin. " I 
wouldn't go through that for a farm Down East. I thought you were 
never coming up, but when you did come you popped out just like a seal. 
You missed a wonderful sight, I tell you. That whole iceberg, bigger 




SCOTT S FIRST VIEW. 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



63 



than a dozen churches, just rolled right over like a lump of ice in a glass 
pitcher. It went right over on top of you, and I believe every particular 
hair on my head stood on end. I don't remember anything about start- 
ing, but the first I knew I was in the gig pulling like mad. It's lucky 
we left it in the water last night." 

" Well, we're learning something about ice navigation, at any rate," 
Scott said, as he pushed his feet closer to the stove and drank a cup of 
hot coffee. 

Just then a sailor lifted the skylight and observed: "There's a sail 
away to the starboard, sir, and land three or four miles to port." 

" Land ! " Roy gasped, springing to his feet and rushing on deck. 

" Land ! " Scott exclaimed, jumping into a pair of dry boots and a 
thick jacket and following him. 

They were spinning along almost due north, in water that was com- 
paratively clear of ice when Scott emerged. Roy was at his old position, 
braced against the mast inspecting a dark horizon on the port-bow, that 
was land and high land, too, without a doubt. 

" That's Labrador, and no mistake," he observed ; " and that's why we 
couldn't make 
our calculations 
come out any 



where this morn- 
ins;. The fact is, 
Scott, we've been 
driven more than 
a hundred miles 
off our course." 

"Let's run 
in," said Scott, 
still shivering 
from his cold 
bath. "If that's 

Labrador it means rocks and birds. I wouldn't mind climbing over 
rocks for an hour after some of them, to warm up a bit." 

" Nor a game dinner after it, either," Roy replied, and turning to the 
man at the helm he gave the order to make for the land. 

" Glory ! " Scott cried, as they neared the wild and savage rocks at 
the boldest point of Labrador, just south of the confluence of Davis and 




'LAND!" ROY GASPED. 



6 4 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 




FAT AND LAZY PUFFINS. 



Hudson Straits. " What if we'd been a little closer in when the storm 
took us ! " He shuddered. 

" Don't you almost wish yourself off Cape Race again, catching cod ? " 
Roy asked, and smiled, though his face was rather pale and solemn as he 

watched the great waves banging 
against that grim ledge and toss- 
ing their spray nearly a hundred 
feet high. 

They left it to the second mate 
to select a safe fjord where they 
could come to anchor. Then, as 
they were leaving in the gig, Scott 
asked, " These rocks will not come 
loose and drop us, will they ? " at 
which the sailors laughed heartily. 
They gathered two large bask- 
ets full of eggs, and had no need of 
firearms in securing all that the gig 
could carry of the fat and lazy puf- 
fins, the penguins of Labrador. As they were returning they shot two 
eider ducks and half a dozen of Mother Carey's chickens. 

" Those eider ducks are the handsomest birds I ever saw," said Scott, 
holding one in his hands as Roy pulled back to the bark. " Look at 
the head and back, it is white as snow. Then that crimson neck, and 
breast as black as coal. And there is gray, green, black and yellow, white 
and brown all mingled there." 

Once more they set their course, this time due northeast, wishing to 
make the southern ports of Greenland, which were very nearly east; but 
to do it they must allow for the strong course of the arctic current, noted 
on the chart. 

As they were moving out of the fjord, one of the sailors spied a 
huge whale lying dead upon the rocks, where he had drifted at high 
water, wounded by a harpoon, no doubt, from which he had temporarily 
escaped. 

They were close upon some of the fishing grounds, and as they 
rounded a high promontory, late in the afternoon, with the shore still 
close upon the port beam, they sighted a stanch, weather-beaten whaler 
lying at anchor in the straits, while her boats were grappling with an 




IT MEANS ROCKS AND BIRDS. 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



6 7 



enormous whale. The Snowbird passed within five hundred feet of 
them The sailors' eyes danced, as they hung in the rigging and watched 
the excitement of their old trade, and Scott and Roy would willingly 

have taken a hand. 

" Tisn't much like landing cod, is it ? " said Roy, as they turned 



away 



J * 1*1" 

Scott was watching an iceberg. There was, however, very little ice 



•-5? 






-% 



¥ 







■ggj^sy^ra 




STRANDED. 



in the water now, but a few large icebergs were constantly in sight 
" They taught us in school that there was seven times more ice under 
the water than out of it," he said, pointing to a monster slowly moving 
across their bows. " That's two hundred feet high at least, isn't it ? Do 
you believe there's fourteen hundred feet of water under us ? " 



68 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



" No, nor half that," Roy replied. 

" Let's throw the lead and see. We haven't tried taking soundings yet." 

" I told you so ! " said Roy triumphantly, as they marked just eighty 

fathoms or four hundred and eighty feet, on a hundred fathom tine. 



F 



Hfe 




"GRAPPLING WITH AN ENORMOUS WHALE." 



' There's seven times more ice — only it's spread out more and solid, 
sir," said a sailor, and the boys looked at each other and resolved not to 
be quite so quick in coming to conclusions, in the face of science, in the 
future. 

They passed a few more whalers and one or two Danish brigs, and 
a chunky little steamer working through the ice, but did not come in 
sight of land. Three times a day they took the most careful observa- 
tions, and each time seemed to be farther and farther north, while by 
dead reckoning, by log and compass, they should be almost in the middle 
of Greenland. 

Again the old sailor was of value in calling to mind what they already 
knew but had forgotten to apply, that there was always a great variation 
of the compass in the far north, when the north pole and the magnetic pole 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



71 



were in two distinctly different directions. Again the boys looked at 
each other in a way to indicate that they realized they had yet much to 
learn, and, by the sun, set their course due east. 

Ten hours later the lookout reported land ahead. It was a little island 
with drifting ice for half a mile clinging to the lee shore. Upon this ice 
were seals without number, and five or six walrus. The huge fellows 
looked very tempting, and Scott was so anxious to have a shot at them 
that the Snowbird hove to, and he and Roy landed on the ice. There 





'WORKING THROUGH THE ICE." 



was a grand adjournment of the meeting as the boys approached, but 
finally, creeping on his hands and knees, Scott came near enough to have 
a fine shot at one dignified old walrus, with tusks nearly a foot long. 

He took a careful aim and fired. He evidently hit, for he was a good 
shot, and the walrus gave a little jump. Roy said he looked as if an idea 
had struck him. He quietly lifted his head, looked back over his shoulder 
at the boys, nodded and gave a little snort, as much as to say, " You'll 



7 2 



FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 



learn better than to waste powder on a tough-skinned fellow like me, if 

you try it often enough," and then quietly rolled over into the water, 

leaving a good laugh behind him at 
Scott's expense. 

They still bore away to the east. 
Night came on, at least by the chro- 
nometer, but with the sun still shining 
through a brilliant haze, like a beautiful 
sunset, and against the bright color 
they distinguished sharp snow-crowned 
peaks, rising out of the horizon and 
cutting into the 
sky. 

" They're 

' Greenland's Icy Mountains ! ' " Scott shouted, as 

Roy came up from below to take his watch on 

deck. 

The two boys stood at the helm together 

for a few moments, before Scott went below. 
" Aren't you rather proud, Captain Sargent ? " 

Scott said, laying his hand affectionately upon 

Roy's shoulder. 

" I'm very thankful," Roy replied earnestly. " Scott, what should you 

and I have done all alone here in a craft we two could have managed at 

home? " 




"A DIGNIFIED OLD WALRUS.' 



§W 




A SLA-LION. 





'they're Greenland's icy mountains!" 



CHAPTER vi. 

Greenland's self. 

AFTER sleeping soundly for several hours, with his jumper hung 
over the port to keep out the sunlight, Scott was called by a 
sailor, who notified him that it was a half-hour before his watch on deck 
began. 

He pulled the jumper from the port, and peering through the thick 
green glass obtained his first glimpse of real Greenland. At a little dis- 
tance was a man in a tight-fitting skin shirt, bareheaded, with a face 
almost the color of coffee, sitting in a canoe completely covered in with 
skins, sewed together and stretched over a light wood frame. He had 
thrust himself through a small hole in the top, up to his waist, and drawn 
the sides of the opening so tight about him that not a drop of water 
could get in. The waves dashed over him, but he did not mind them. 
He might have capsized and righted a dozen times without difficulty. 

Before him was a small skin-covered barrel, to help him right the 
canoe, and behind him a reel, upon which a strong cord of seal or walrus 
skin was coiled, the end of which was made fast to a harpoon which he 
held in one hand, while with the other he used a double-bladed paddle, 
darting about over the waves and through them, like a fish. 

Just as they were passing out of sight a huge sword-fish rose. The 
canoe leaped forward till its bow almost touched the shining back. The 
harpoon flew through the air, sank into the side of the fish and disappeared 
with him as he dove. 

73 



74 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



The cord spun from the reel, and the fisherman sat watching it with 
a placid smile as he passed beyond the range of the port. 

Before long Scott became better acquainted with the kayak — the 
skin canoe in which the Esquimau hunts, fishes and travels — and with 




HP' 

w 





FIRST GLIMPSE OF GREENLAND. 

the oomiak, or woman's boat, completing Greenland's naval architecture. 

When Scott reached the deck, the Snowbird was beating her way up 

a strano- e wild bay, or fjord, toward what appeared to be a little cluster 

of the plainest wood and stone huts imaginable, in a sheltered nook at 

the head of the fjord. _ 

" That is Fiskenaes," said Roy, bobbing his head in the direction of 
the settlement. " It is a Danish trading-post. We are only a few miles 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



75 



farther north than we thought for. I shouldn't have come in here, 
however ; but look at that ice ! " 

Scott looked behind them. The wind had evidently changed outside, 
for a great mass of huge icebergs and pack-ice and floe was following 
close upon their track. 

" Just think if we were twenty miles farther back, or if we had not 
happened to be abreast this fjord when the ice struck in," said Roy. 

The water about them was covered with kayaks and oomiaks now. 
There were Esquimaux, Danes and half-breeds, shouting a welcome to 
the strangers in words they could not understand, and evidently congrat- 
ulating them upon having escaped the ice ; while others upon the shore 
were waiting to welcome them when they landed. 

The air grew foul with the vile odors of drying codfish, for Fiskenaes 
is the best place on all the coast for catching and drying cod. There 
was an exaggerated suggestion of home in that odor, and it might have 




'THAT IS FISKENAES. 



been rather agreeable to the boys had it not been saturated, through and 
through, with the viler smells of last year's whale fat, and seal and shark 
and walrus blubber, trying itself out into oil by natural processes, in great 
vats, in the open air. 



7 6 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



They were glad enough, however, to find a temporary haven, and 
received a hearty welcome from the sturdy little Danish superintendent 
of the trading-post, who spoke English better than some Englishmen. 

The Snowbird was warped into a 
sheltered cove, and in the afternoon 
the boys sat in the superintendent's 
office before a smoking oil-fire, 
watching the trades going on, as 
Esquimaux came from up and down 
the coast, and far in the interior, 
with their wives, all in their Sunday 
clothes with skins and furs and wal- 




• WAITING TO WELCOME THEM. 



rus ivory, frozen deer meat, cod, and 
all kinds of blubber, to exchange for 
tobacco and coffee. 

" How in the world do they catch 
cod and seal in the interior?" Scott 
asked. 

The superintendent smiled as he 
replied : " Greenland is full of fjords. 
Many of them you would hardly no- 
tice from the sea, but the fish find them, and the seal follow the fish for 
miles among the mountains." 

" Are there any Esquimau villages in this neighborhood ? " Roy asked. 




A TRADER S WIFE. 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



77 



" There are several small settlements that don't amount to much, but 
there's one quite extensive winter city a few miles inland, with summer 
quarters not far off upon a fjord. It will only require three days to go 
and come. I'll take you out there to-morrow, and you shall see the 
Esquimau in all his pristine glory," said the superintendent. 
" Three days ! " Scott exclaimed. 

" To-morrow ! " said Roy. " Why, we must try to get out of here 
this afternoon." 

Again the superintendent smiled. " It will be more than three days, 

good friends, be- 
fore you can 
escape us. That 
ice will not break 
up before a week." 
They slept in 
the superinten- 
dent's house that 
night, in a room 
with solid wooden 
shutters to keep 
out the light, and 
when it was early 
morning by the 
clock they started 
for the Esquimaux. 
Each one was 
armed, and each 
one carried a stock 
of provisions and 

seal-skin clothes upon his back, while a half-dozen dogs, loaded like so 
many miniature pack-mules, carried the tent and robes. 

In the summer the ground was bare about Fiskenaes, and they were 
obliged to walk a little way to meet the sledges. 

The superintendent added his little daughter to the pack upon his 
back. The boys thought she was a boy, for she was dressed in her 
Esquimau seal-skin clothes, which made her decidedly indignant, till her 
father explained to her how hard it was to tell men from women, when 
people first came to Greenland. 




STARTING ON THE PICNIC. 



7 8 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



When they reached the sledges it was snowing, and they were all of 
them glad enough to put on the seal-skin clothes. 

The rest of the burdens were securely packed upon the heaviest 





'SCOTT BORROWED THE WHIP." 



sledge and started off, with six dogs and two Esquimaux harnessed in 
front and another pushing the sledge, while the fourth drove the dogs. 

Two persons and a driver occupied each of the smaller sledges, and a 
moment later were flying like the wind over the white drifts. 

The boys practiced with an instrument which the trader loaned them, 
to test their speed, on n - uch the same principle of throwing the log at 
sea, and watched the driver handle his whip with unbounded admiration. 

The dogs were attached to the sledge by long cords of rolled hide, of 
different lengths, and that whip was the only argument-which the driver 
could use with them. The handle was only two feet long, but the lash 
was nearly eighteen feet. 

When one dog lagged, or snapped at another, he called his name, in 




STARTING THE BAGGAGE. 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



81 



a shrill, sharp voice, shouted something like: " Tti-lee-hee-hee-hee / " and 
at the same instant lifted that short handle. 

The lash was always dragging behind, but the driver gave a sudden 
jerk and it flew through the air. The next instant there was a crack like 
the report of a pistol, and a yelp and a bound from the offending dog 
showed how correct the aim had been. 

Scott borrowed the whip to try his hand. No one at Little Harbor 
could crack a whip like him, and after a few experiments he could make 
a report that sent the Esquimau driver into ecstasies. 

Then he watched for an offending dog, and had not long to wait. 
He gave an excellent imitation of " Tu-lee-hee-hee-hee ! " and sent the lash 
flying; but it cracked upon the nose of the dog behind. He yelped, fell 
back, stumbled and rolled over and over. In the meantime the lash 
became entangled in the tow-lines. The dos;s discovered the fact in an 




THE WINTER SETTLEMENT. 



instant, and as that lash was the only thing they were afraid of, they 
stopped work forthwith, and began a grand free" fight till everything was 
tangled. 

It delayed them nearly half an hour, but fortunately there was no 



82 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



danger of approaching night to hasten them, and in time they reached 
the winter settlement. It was a cluster of hemispheres, made of cakes of 
ice, with a hole in one side for the people and dogs to creep in and out, 
and a hole near the top where the smoke could escape if it was in danger 
of dying for want of exercise. 

The city was nearly deserted, as most of the families were at the fjord 








THEY ENTERED THE LARGEST. 



for the summer, and the boys crept into the largest hut. They were o-lad 
enough to get back into the open air again, however. 

"Jehu! " said Scott, as he gulped a breath. 

" Fiskenaes is bad enough," Roy gasped, coming out close behind 
him. 

" It's only our regulation polar perfume," said the trader; "and that 
house has been unoccupied for some time. It must be pretty well aired 
out by this. You should try it in the winter, when three generations 
with a lot of untanned skins and blubber, live dogs and a whale oil fire 




THE WALRUS HUNT. 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



85 



get in there all together, and plug up the door and chimney hole in a 
cold snap. That's the real article." 

" I should think the dogs would die, any way," Scott muttered. 

" Die ! why they like it. And so do the people. It is a very good 
thing for the traveling public, too. In the winter you could not distin- 
guish one of these settlements at a little distance, and there are no roads 
or signboards, but you can smell an Esquimau village two or three miles 
away." 

" I believe it," said Scott, as they took the sledges again and went on 
to the summer settlement at the head of the fjord, where the people were 
hunting and fishing, chattering like sea gulls round a wreck. 

" The lazy fellows make their dogs do everything," Scott muttered, 
as they saw an 
Esquimau fix his 
harpoon in a large 
walrus basking on 
a piece of floating 
ice, and then 
leave his dog to 
land the creature 
by fastening the 
coil attached to 
the . harpoon to 
the dog's harness. 

"Just see l 
those flowers ! " | 
Roy cried a mo- 5 
ment later, as 1 
they came upon 
a cluster of bright 
native blossoms 
nestling on the 
southern side of 
a ledge of rocks, while ten feet away lay solid ice and snow. 

" For the next month," said the trader, " wherever a bit of soil shows 
itself, they will make the most of it. Watercresses grow in a marsh 
behind my house; and around Julianshaab, at the south, a little grain 
grows in sheltered places, and coarse grass is a foot high, watered by the 




A SEAL-CATCHER. 



86 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



melting snow. Fortunately, however, we don't eat what grows in the 



ground.' 



The boys looked at each other in astonishment. It was something 
they had always known, but never stopped to appreciate. 

" A whole nation," said Roy, " living without fruit or corn, wheat or 




KOKO AND THE WOLVES. 



vegetables, except as a few have learned and bought of foreigners ! But 
there's plenty of game, I suppose ? " 

"In the winter a musk-ox sometimes finds himself driven down to us. 
I was out with a party last winter and took a huge fellow. We have 
made two beds out of his hide. That's his head up in the office. Wolves 
are plenty, but they are more bother than they are worth. Koko, tell 
them about the time you had with wolves last winter." 

_ A sleepy Esquimau, sitting on the ice eating a piece of raw meat, 
grinned from ear to ear, and in broken English told how he left the 
settlement for the post with two barrels of fish oil on a sledge, when 
the wolves came at him. Dogs will fight a white bear wherever they 



GREENLAND'S SELE. 



89 




find him, but they will always run from a hungry wolf. The first thing 
the wolves killed one dog, and the rest all slunk away at the end of their 
ropes. Then the wolves came at him. He jumped into the largest barrel 
of oil, and with his harpoon kept the pack at a distance for a time. Then 
it occurred to him to upset the other barrel of oil, which he did, and while 
the wolves were going for that he started the dogs and left them. 

" There are deer, too, but not many," added the trader. - 

" And how about polar bears ? " asked Roy. " I judged from pictures 
in my geography that they were floating on every iceberg, but I have not 
seen any." 

" Strangers always think that way," said the trader, " but really white 
bears are very scarce. I never saw but three alive, but if the talk is true 
you may be fortunate. They tell me tracks have been seen around the 
camp for several days, and you might go and look them up to-morrow. 
If you can find the fel- 
low we'll muster a crowd 
and go hunt him." 

"I'll do it!" cried 
Scott. 

" Me, too ! " echoed 
Roy ; " and now let's turn in, so's to start as soon as possible." 

" It is literally turn in," Scott exclaimed, as the sleeping arrangement 
was explained to him. " Look at this, will you, Roy? A sleeping bag, 
they call it. It's seven feet long, at least; that's good. All skin, with 
the fur inside, and this slit is the only opening. We must crawl into it 
feet first, and then, if it's a cold night, I suppose we pull the hole in after 
us. It's a nightgown and a half, I tell you." 

Their beds were robes thrown on the snow, and they found the sleeping 
bags none too warm ; while the trader told them of times when the mer- 
cury was 75 below freezing, when in his warmest clothing, covered 
with his sealskins, he had got bodily into the sleeping bag and pulled 
two heavy robes over that, and still found his feet frozen on waking. 

With the pack-sled, a fresh lot of dogs and the best bear-hunter in 
the settlement, they started out to track the bear. They soon struck 
fresh prints in the soft snow. The driver stood up to obtain a better view. 
Things were very quickly becoming interesting. The dogs were rushing 
at a furious rate when, with a peculiar yelp, the whole pack made a sharp 
turn to the right, landing the driver on his head in a snowdrift. 



A SLEEPING BAG. 



9° 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



Instantly the boys discovered a great, dingy-looking creature crouch- 
ing in the snow ahead of them. He was much larger and not at all like 
the graceful, snow-white animal that rolls about in the Zoological Garden, 
but they knew that it must be the bear, and grasped their rifles. 

Fortunately the sledge, unguided, struck an ice hummock and left 
both of the boys sitting in the snow ; for a moment later the huge bear was 
crouching upon the sledge and snapping vigorously at the dogs. 

Had they come near enough to his head he would have caught them 
in his teeth, given them one twist, and hurled them so far away that they 
would not care to come back again ; but they had seen white bears 
before, and stood in a circle just out of reach, barking furiously, to take 




THE BEAR CROUCHED UPON THE SLEDGE. 



up his attention, while two behind him bit and bit and bit, whichever way 
he turned. 

The hunter came running up from behind. They could not under- 
stand a word he said, but it was evident that he was anxious to have 
them follow him back to the settlement as quickly as possible. 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



91 



•' Well, I guess not! " said Scott. 
" Not if we know ourselves," Roy added. 

" Pray, Mr. Esquimau, what do you suppose we are here for ? " Scott 
asked. 

The poor fellow looked so earnest and bewildered that Roy took pity 




II It liT' l ''- ; ' ' "" 




ON THE SNOWBIRDS DECK. 



on him, shook his head, pointed to his gun, then at the bear, and motioned 
him to stand back and see the fun. The stupid fellow shook his head, 
but obeyed. 

Presently the bear noticed them, deliberately turned about, and, with 
the dogs still hectoring him, came slowly toward them, snapping and 
snarling. 

" Wonder what he eats ? " Scott muttered, with a suggestive look down 
at himself. 

" Not fruit or vegetables, any way," said Roy. 

" Nor me, either, this morning," Scott added. 



9 2 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



" How are you going to help it if he only bobs his head when you 
hit him, like your walrus, and comes right on ? " 

" Do you s'pose he's bullet proof ? " 

" We'll soon find out." 

" What if he is?" 

" We'll have to run." 

" Can't, in this snow." 

" Let's try a shot. Are you ready ? " 

" Aye ! aye ! " 

" You aim for his eye. That's soft, any way, and you're the best shot. 
I'll take him in the mouth, if he opens it. If not, I spot his nose ! One ! " 




UNLOADING STORES. 

All the time the bear came nearer and nearer, his great claws glistening 
as he lifted them out of the snow. 

" Two ! " ' The bear snarled, sat up on his haunches, threw his head 
back and showed a glistening row of teeth, precisely as though he were 
saying, " Come on, now. See if you can hurt me." 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



93 



" Three ! " Both rifles banged. The bear did not move except to 
close his eyes, shut his jaws with a resounding click, and draw his lips 
still farther back. 

" Load again ! " whispered Scott. 

" Did we miss him ? " Roy muttered. 

" Not to-day ! " Scott cried, as the bear began to sink slowly, and 
finally rolled over, dead, upon the snow. 

He was given the place of honor on the sledge, while the boys walked 
and waded back to the settlement. He measured nearly nine feet, and 




LANDING THE STORES. 



weighed six hundred and eighty pounds as his body lay, the next day, 
stretched in triumph on the deck of the Snowbird. 

During their absence the supply steamer from Denmark had come in, 
wedged her way into the outer ice, was made fast there with ice anchors, 
and such stores as were to be left at the post had been unloaded upon the 
ice. When the party returned the queer, sturdy, dumpy little Danish 
sailors were working the stores up to shore, with sledges and boats. 

The captain had stopped at all of the ports of Greenland to the 
south, and the trader offered to find out if he knew anything of the Louise. 



94 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 



They were all sitting about the moss and oil fire in the office, waiting 
for the men to finish bringing up the stores, when they would begin the 
work of cutting the steamer out again. 

Yes; he had seen the Louise, about three weeks before, and had 




THE CAPTAIN ALMOST LEFT. 



taken some freight from her hold for several of the Northern ports, as 
her captain was in haste to get away. She had loaded with saddle-back 
seal furs and oil, and had taken on about a dozen passengers for — for — 
for some port on the northern coast of Norway. He would think in a 
moment. But before he had thought there was a cry from the shore. 

The ice was breaking up ! He caught up his hood, pulled on his fur 
jumper and ran. The great iceberg on the outer edge had suddenly 
started out to sea, and the whole floe was following it. The steamer, 
of course, was set free, and must be got out of the dangerous position 
at once. 

Two of the steamer's boats were still on the ice, nine of the sailors, 
and some of the stores. 

The captain ran till he was met by a broad rift of open water, then 
yelled frantically for the men with one of the boats to come for him, 




CHATTERING A FAREWELL. 



GREENLAND'S SELF. 97 

while the people of the post rushed down to save the stores that were 
drifting away. 

It was such a scene of confusion as Fiskenaes had never witnessed, 
and Scott and Roy, with the sailors of the Snowbird who were on shore, 
gave willing hands to help them out. 

When the excitement was over, and they were getting the Snowbird 
into the fjord, it occurred to them that all they knew of the Louise was 
that three weeks before she had sailed for some northern port of Norway. 

" Well, we're better off than if we knew nothing," said Roy. " I 
reckon there are precious few ports in Northern Norway, anyhow. The 
chart only gives five or six, and I move we run for the upper one as fast 
as wind will carry us, and then work down." 

" I wish we had time to see more of Greenland," said Scott; "but I'm 
going to come again some day." 

" Greenland is all pretty much alike, only in some places a little more 
so," said the trader. " A little colder north, a little warmer south. All 
you'd learn in twenty years would be to talk Esquimau, drink oil, and eat 
blubber and raw meat." 

" I've read of wonderful old relics and ruins at the south," said Roy. 
" I should like to see them, but I'd rather be after the Louise." So they 
sailed away. 

They were sorry to leave the hospitable superintendent at Fiskenaes, 
in spite of all the vile smells that surrounded him, and he was sorry to 
have them go. They even looked fondly back at the great waves dash- 
ing upon the base of a huge cliff jutting into the water, with the birds 
clinging to its ragged sides, chattering a farewell to them, and Puck, a 
handsome Spitz pup which the trader had given to Scott, barked in 
return. 

" We shall be back here some day," said Roy, as he watched Cape 
Farewell sinking into the sea, and turning to the man at the helm, 
he set the course of the Snowbird toward Norway, the Land of the 
Midnight Sun. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



DAY after day they held their course east by north ; sometimes in 
sunshine, sometimes under clouds, always in broad daylight or a 
glowing sunrise and sunset. 

With a great deal of pride they sighted the headlands of Iceland at the 
very day and hour they planned when off Cape Farewell, eight hundred 
miles away. They never dreamed that winds and tides and currents had 
been counteracting the deviation of their compass, and setting them right 
all by chance. It gave them too much confidence in their ability. They 
set the course again for Torghatten, about midway between the Naze 
and North Cape, some twelve hundred miles away, sure that they should 
hit it. But now the tides and currents and two sharp storms aided the 
deviations, and Arctic fogs prevented their taking the sun for seven full 
days. 

They knew they had crossed the Arctic circle, for there was no per- 
ceptible change in the light through all the twenty-four hours. They 
were sure they had run over thirteen hundred miles, but a lookout had 
been kept at the masthead for two days before he reported: " Ship ahoy! 
A small steamer on the starboard bow ! " and a half-hour later, " Land 
ahead ! on the port bow." 

They wondered at the absolute lack of vessels or any sign of life. 
The sun shone out clear and bright as they neared the defiant ledge, and 
they saw a dozen men pulling upon some sort of a cat-boat. 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



99 



The Snowbird lay to, and Roy and Scott pulled ashore. 

" Do any of you speak English ? " Roy asked, and a curious shock it 
gave the boys when pretty much all of them replied with a chorus of, 
" Yes, sir ! " " Oh ! yes, indeed ! " " Certainly ! " and the like. 

Roy was so taken by surprise that he forgot what he wanted to ask 
and Scott put the question for him: 

" What do you call this place ? " 

" North Cape, sir." 

" North Cape ! " Scott exclaimed. 

" North Cape ! " Roy gasped. 

" We're seven hundred miles farther north than we thought for," 
said Scott in a low tone. 

" We have sailed the Snowbird farther north than Europe or 
America, my boy," Roy returned triumphantly, striking a tragic attitude. 




" LAND AHEAD ! " 



•' But don't you ever let on how we came to do it, Roy," Scott 
aoded. 

Among the men was a bright young Norwegian sailor who spoke 
excellent English, and knew the coast of Norway from cape to cape. He 



IOO 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



had been spending the season helping visitors to land and climb to the 
summit of the cape, but was anxious to get back to his home at Chris- 
tiansand. He offered to pay his passage, but the boys contracted with 
him to act as their pilot instead. 

Running to a hut he returned with his limited chest, and soon the 
Snowbird was under sail again ; for the boys cared nothing about the 
Midnight Sun, for which so many pilgrims make the journey and climb 
that precipitous ledge. 

" I've seen quite enough of this twenty-four hours of daylight 
business," said Scott; " and it's my humble opinion that when the proper 
time comes the sun ouarht to blow out his light and go to bed, and not 

be in any hurry 
about lighting up 
again too early in 
the morning;, either." 
Hammerfest was 
their first stopping- 
place. " It is the 
nearest city on earth 
to the North Pole," 
said the pilot, and 
the boys expected 
something worse 
than little Fiskenaes. 
When they entered 
the fjord, however, 
they found it literally crowded with shipping. Quaint vessels of sturdy 
model lined the busy wharves. Steep-roofed houses of ample dimensions 
stretched back as far as the eye could reach. There were smoking fac- 
tories near the shore, and along the wharves were great store-houses, 
with open fronts, two stories up, for drying fish and skins, while church 
spires rose in the distance, and green grass and flowers appeared on the 

hillsides. 

"Just think of it!" said Roy. "We're five or six hundred miles 

farther north than little Fiskenaes." 

" They fish here every day of the year, and they have a great trade 
around North Cape with the northern part of Russia," said the pilot. 

" Well, charity ought to begin at home," Scott replied. " We furnish 




" NORTH CAPE, SIR. 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



103 



the hot water for the Gulf Stream that makes all the difference between 
this and Greenland, and then we go freeze to death ourselves, nearly two 
thousand miles south of here." 

" It is quite true," said the pilot. " I am told that the winter at New 
England is often colder than at Hammerfest." 

There was no Louise to be seen or heard from at Hammerfest, and 
after filling the water tanks, and stocking up with fresh fish and reindeer 
meat, they entered another fjord, long and winding, between rocky ledges, 
making their way toward Tromso. 

" I suppose you do have ice and snow somewhere in these parts ? " 
Scott observed. 

" Most certainly ! " exclaimed the pilot. " Tromso is so far back from 
the sea that it loses some of the effect, and there will be snow and ice 
now in the gorges. But Tromso even is still really only an island, though 
so far inland, and if you will give the time to working a little farther up 




the fjord and visit a Lapp settlement 

on the mainland, I'll show you snow 

and ice as old as any they've got in 

Greenland, and just as much of it." 

" Well, I've seen snow and ice enough to keep me cool till next 

summer," said Scott. " But I'd like a peep at some Lapps, all the 

same." 

" Me, too ! " Roy exclaimed. " I have some very queer notions about 



io4 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



Lapps. I don't know where I got them, but I'd like to see if they are 
true." 

So the Snowbird kept on and on, through passages so narrow that it 
seemed almost impossible to pass, and over beautiful broad bays, always 






<t 



n§8 



UP THE FJORP TO TROMSO. 



with a good sailing breeze, but 
never with a single wave more 
than a ripple, and bleak, bare, black mountains always rising precipi- 
tately out of the water. 

Half-way up the fjord they had an opportunity to take on board three 
Lapps, and carry them to their destination. 

They were a man and two women, the pilot said, but Scott declared 
that until they were sorted out for him he could not for his life tell t'other 
from which. 

" They keep grinning like Esquimaux, but what squatty little things 
they are ! " Roy observed. " See, this fellow doesn't come up to my 
shoulder." 

" They're as broad as they are long. What makes them so big about 
the waist ? " Scott asked. 

Here the Lapps all grinned again. They could not understand Eng- 
lish, but they saw there was some joke, and laughed, never dreaming it 
was about themselves. 

It was so ludicrous that the boys roared as the pilot explained that in 



:'', ■' '■ . ii'vii't " 




z. 



S 



THE LAND OE THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



107 



their primitive existence they had no Saratoga trunk or crocodile skin 
portmanteau, and when they were on the move, which was nearly all the 
time, they packed the contents of the pantry, the wardrobe, and all their 
household furniture in the bosoms of their loose blouse waists. 

"Great Scott! Considering all the incidents, it strikes me those 
people must really be rather slim," Roy remarked, and the Lapps all 
laughed again. 

Very soon they had an opportunity of seeing Lapps in abundance ; 
some of them decided improvements upon the first samples. Some wore 
the storhatten, or " large hat," and some the torghatten, or " little hat," 




THE TROMSO CATHEDRAL. 



which was really larger than the large hat. Aside from these, however, 
there seemed no system or fashion in their dress, but to get on as many 
pieces as they could. 

" What perplexing work they must have dressing and undressing," 
said Roy. 

" They do very little of that," replied the pilot, laughing scornfully, 
for the Norwegians all look down upon the Lapps. " They simply put 
on one piece after another as it grows colder, and take off one after 
another as summer comes on. They eat and work and sleep just as you 
see them." 



ioS 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



" That's all right," said Scott. " What could you expect, Roy ? Where 
Nature sets the example, by only one day and night a year, of course the 
people don't dress and undress but once. ''Twould be ag'in Natur,' as 

Aunt Sally used to say." 

Clambering over rocks and 
moss they reached the valley 
where there was a summer set- 
tlement of Lapps, who followed 
the reindeer when they came 
down for six months of feeding 
on the moss. 

" They live on reindeer," said 
the pilot. " They drink reindeer 
milk, eat reindeer meat, and wear 
reindeer skins. They make all 
their implements from reindeer 
bone and horn, and use the rein- 
deer as their only means of trav- 
eling. The reindeer live on moss, 
so where you find moss you find 
reindeer, and where you find rein- 
deer you find Lapps." 

" I want a ride after a rein- 
deer, if there is snow enough," 
said Scott. 
" There's plenty of snow a mile from here," replied the pilot, " and if 
there were not, it would not matter, for they use the sledges on the bare 
ground just the same as on the snow." And while he went to make 
arrangements, the boys watched the daily operation of milking. 

A Lapp would lasso the nearest doe and throw her down. Then some 
boy who was helping him would hold her by the great antlers till he had 
tied her feet, and he would proceed to milk. 

" Jehu ! " said Roy. " Isn't that just a straight tip for Aunt Sally and 
her frisky, one-horned cow ? When we get home let's give it to her. It 
would save her and her milk-pail many a whack." 

" I'll tell you what let's do," said Scott. " Let's go round and ask her 
if we can't show her on her one-horned cow, how they milk their kicking 
reindeer up in Lapland." 




'THE LAPPS ALL GRINNED. 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



109 




THE STORHATTEN. 



" Do you suppose she'd catch on ? " Roy asked thoughtfully. 
" Well, no ; but I reckon the cow would before we had done with her," 
Scott replied. 

The pilot called them, having made the arrangements. They walked 
a half-mile over some low hills. There was snow 
enough in the next valley, and there were three 
reindeer harnessed like the dogs in Greenland, 
by a single cord, to three small sledges, looking 
almost like Indians' canoes. 

" You don't expect us each to drive, do you ? " 
Scott asked, as he was told to seat himself in 
the first sledge and given the single rein and 
short-handed whip. " I don't see how you steer 
with this one rope." 

" There's little need to steer," replied the 
pilot. " There are never but two places on a 
road in Norway. One is the place you came 
from, the other is the place you are going to. 
All you have to do is to prevent a reindeer from 

stopping to eat, and he will go straight to the 
nearest settlement. He can smell it, even if there 
is no road. Only be sure you hold on to that 
rein when you upset, or the deer will go on with- 
'•: y ..- _ out you." 

" Well, I guess not," said Scott, and he took 
a double twist in the leather thong and caught it 
about his wrist. It was a wise precaution, for 
both of the boys, as well as the pilot, capsized 
several times before they reached the village, nine 
miles away. 

" Their houses are for all the world like the 

Esquimau huts," Roy exclaimed, " only these are 

made of mud and moss, and those were ice and 

snow." 

Scott gathered courage to crawl into one, but Roy waited outside. 

" You ought to go in, Roy," he gasped, as he emerged again. " It's a 

fine place ; twice the size of a Greenland mansion, and on top of all the 

other smells they've carpeted and bedded the thing with undressed skins." 




THE TORGHATTEN. 



no 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



" I've had fun enough out here, killing mosquitoes," said Roy. "The 
place is thick with them. Let's get out. And by the way, did you see 
that fellow in snowshoes ten feet long, as we came up, with a back full 
of ducks and a long pole with a sheer on the end of it ? " 

" They were ice-shoes, not snowshoes," said the pilot. " With them 
he can follow duck over ice not more than a quarter of an inch thick. 
But they are best of all for coming down hill. He climbs all day up and 
up after game, then he puts on those shoes, and guiding himself with 
that sheer, will come down the mountains twenty miles an hour." 

" Well, I didn't see him at all," said Scott, " for looking at the baby. 
You know the woman who stood smoking a pipe and talking with him ? 

I tell you she knew a thing or two. 
.-• But the baby! Jehu! the baby! 

Did you ever see a baby like that 
in all your life ? " 

" Never saw a baby at all but 
you, Scott, and I was too young 
then to appreciate the privilege." 

" Come off, Roy ! " cried Scott, 
lausdiins:. " Didn't I rock the cradle 
and keep the flies off you, so that 
you could go right on teething with- 
out tacking ? " 

" I wish you would practice a 
little now, and keep these mosquitoes off," said Roy. 

On their return they were offered the cordial and dirty hospitality of 
the Lapps, in the shape of a greasy bowl of warm reindeer milk. Roy 
tried, but could not get the bowl to his lips. Scott profited by the hint, 
and caught up a spoon made of reindeer horn. 

" A real horn spoon," he muttered, wiping off a quantity of grease 
from the edge with an old piece of newspaper from his pocket, but one 
swallow was enough. 

" It's fine and sweet," he said, "but either from its surroundings or 
from what those creatures eat, it carries with it a strong impression of 
tired codfish." 

Their last view of the Lapps was a smiling mother, shaking her baby 
to sleep in a portable cradle. 

A little later the Snowfo'rdwas working her way through the circuitous 




THE LAPPS AT HOME. 




[ THAT FELLOW IN SNOWSHOES. 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN 



"3 



% 



fjords off the Loffoden Islands, a short sail to the south. They are as 
much a part of Norway as Norway herself ; only great, ragged, precipi- 
tous mountains cut entirely away from each other by those beautiful 
black arms of waveless water. They were bound for the little town of 
Svolvaer, located there simply because people had found a little strip of 
earth large enough to build upon. It was only another possible port for 
the Louise, and they proposed to test them all. 

The pilot was in charge. Roy was watching the cliffs, and Scott, 
with Puck beside him keeping a 
sharp lookout, was indulging in 
his old trade of fishing. 

He had had excellent luck, 
when it suddenly occurred to him 
that the Snowbird was running 
within twenty feet of those brist- 
ling ledges, and he began to won- 
der if it was safe. 

" Do you know how much 
water we have under us?" he 
called to the pilot. The pilot 
shook his head. 

" Hadn't we better take sound- 
ings ? " Scott asked as Roy 
came up. 

" I think we had, or else slack 
up a bit," said Roy ; for they were 
spinning along before a rousing 
breeze. 

They threw the lead. They threw it twice. One hundred fathoms 
of line went out. It was all the line there was, but it did not touch 
bottom. 

" There's nearer twice that, sir," said the pilot, a little hurt that they 
had doubted his ability. 

" How in the world is that possible? " Roy exclaimed, looking at the 
ledge rising out of the water so near to them. 

The pilot shrugged his shoulders and simply answered : 

" This is Norway, sir." 

" I knew 'twas the Land of the Midnight Sun," said Scott, " but 





A PORTABLE CRADLE. 



ii4 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



it strikes me it's all sun and bare rocks, with no land and no 
bottom." 

" I'll tell you how Norway came to be," said the pilot, "and you shall 
judge for yourself." 

" It was this way," said the pilot, as they were running southward. 
" When God created the world, he looked at it, saw that it was good, and 




SVOL.VAER ON THE LOFFODENS. 



rested. While he slept Satan came out to look. It was too beautiful 
for him, and he tore a great rock from the bed of hell and threw it at 
the earth. It fell near the North Pole, flattening down the perfect sphere, 
shaking the pole out of the perpendicular, and splitting into a thousand 
pieces. God woke and put his hand upon the earth and kept it from tip- 
ping any farther. He scraped up from the Sahara a little soil. It wasn't 
much, but he threw it over the bare black rocks. You will still find it 
down in the valleys. That is why the axis of the earth is not perpendic- 
ular; why the earth is flattened at the pole; why the Sahara is nothing 
but sand, and why Norway is. Poor Norway ! God has sent her fish in 
recompense. It was all he could do." 

The pilot really sighed, and Scott and Roy learned afterward that he 
had told them a legend actually accepted by many as the only way of 
accounting for such a place as Norway. 




SCOTT AND PUCK FISHING 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



117 



" That is Torghatten on the port bow, sir," said the pilot. " It is 
named ' little hat,' after the things the Lapps wore, you remember. See 
how much it is like them? Soon we shall be round on the other side, 
and you will see a hole completely through the mountain, like a tunnel. 
Long ago, you know, there were giants in Norway, and one, Hestmand, 
fell in love with Leko. She would not have him, and on horseback he 
chased her. She had a brother who was a giant. He picked her up and 
carried her out into the sea. Hestmand rode out into the water a few 




1 THAT S TORGHATTEN. 



miles below. When the brother was so far out that only his torghatten 
showed above the water, Hestmand fired an arrow at him. It went 
right through his hat. One of the gods was looking on. He didn't like 
Leko for running away from a man who loved her. He didn't like her 
brother for helping her. He didn't like Hestmand for firing at them, so 
he turned the whole of them to stone, just where they were." 

" Where is Hestmand ? " asked Scott. 

" Just below, sir. You'll soon see how like a man on horseback it 
looks, to this day." 

" And you believe it all ? " Roy asked in astonishment. 

"Why not, sir?" replied the pilot solemnly. "If I doubted it I 



n8 



THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



could climb right up and walk through that hole in Torghatten to con- 
vince myself." But there was a peculiar twinkle in his eye as he walked 
away. 

It was by no means difficult navigating. They could have managed 

without a pilot, by careful 
watching, but, as Scott ex- 
pressed it: "It is an inex- 
pressible convenience to 
have some one on board to 
answer questions," and Roy 
put his sentiment more char- 
acteristically for him : " It is 
no end of relief to feel that 
there's some one to take off 
the edge of responsibility." 
There were numberless 
islands, but always the deep- 
est of deep water between them, and it was 
only when running up the fjords that the 
pilot stood constantly at the prow to point 
out the way. 
" With this soft air and all, it would be hard 
to realize that we were still north of the Arctic 
Circle,'' said Roy, " if it were not for the sun. I'm 
thinking that after this lot of extra daylight we've 
had we shall hardly know how to manage in the 
dark." 

"no bottom." "Well, I'm thinking," Scott replied, "that I'd 

like to square up the account by seeing this coast 
during: the night. It didn't seem so out of place in Greenland. I could 
as easily imagine those fellows enveloped in a six months' night as I 
could a blueberry bear going into a hollow tree for the winter. They're 
a stupid, sleepy set, any way, and I fancy they enjoy it. But think of a 
busy town like Hammerfest with no sunlight; I can't." 

" I never thought of it that way," said Roy, "but it is funny, isn't it? 
I wonder how they manage." 

" They must sail by chronometer, of course," Scott replied ; " but I tell 
you what it is, these twenty-four hour clocks would be a great game in 




THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



119 



this climate, wouldn't they ? I should think they'd be in danger of 
getting all twisted up and coming out in the spring counting the wrong 
twelve hours for day." 

"Precious little harm it would do, Scott," said Roy; "for after they 
got over the first spasm of changing it would be daylight all the time, and 
they could keep right on with it just as before." 

" The principal change they make is in their homes," the pilot re- 




«*n -"---jSJ 



:-?':/%$$?$% 



*fv3OT&. 





TORGHATTEN FROM THE BAY. 



marked. "The houses usually face east and west, and are often divided 
by a straight hall, with a whole house on each side. Many families who 
can afford it live entirely upon the south side of the house during the 
winter, and upon the north side during the summer months." 

Thus with clear weather and a fair wind they ran southward till they 
crossed the Arctic Circle, over seas so smooth that one could hardly be- 
lieve them a part of the thundering ocean, and were headed for the fjord 
of Trondhjem. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



A LONG CHASE. 



ROY and Scott turned in, leaving the pilot to work the Snowbird up 
the long fjord of Trondhjem. Roy was asleep almost as soon as 
he touched the bunk ; for while there could be no waves to rock the 
sailor boy's cradle, there was a strong breeze blowing in a fog, which 
kept the Snowbird in constant motion. 

Scott was almost asleep, too, when he heard the pilot call : 

" Captain Sargent ! 

" Aye, aye ! " Scott replied, seeing that Roy did not answer. 

" There's a two-master, square-rigged, American-built brig, mainsails 
and jib set, two miles from the offing on the starboard bow, sir." 

Scott leaped from his bunk, up the companion-way, grasped the pilot's 
glass, and was looking at the point indicated, in the twinkling of an eye. 

He was none too soon, for the fog was rapidly closing in, and in a 
moment she was lost to sight. The effect of that momentary glimpse, 
however, was remarkable. Scott sprang to the helm, and noted on the 
compass the point where the brig had disappeared. He caught the 
helm, put the Snowbird 's beak in that direction, ordered the sailor whose 
place he had taken to go below and call the captain, telling him to dress 
and come on deck; then, turning to the pilot, said : 

" Go forward and keep a sharp lookout. Mind you don't let me 
waste time in turning out too far for rocks. I'm going to overhaul that 
craft if it takes the Snowbird's keel." 



A LONG CHASE. 



121 



Two more sailors were called to work the sails, and when Roy came 
up the companion-way, had he not been impressed with the fact that 
something of grave importance had occurred, he would surely have burst 
into an uproarious laugh. There stood Scott at the helm, with every 






^S^SlllSES 



HESTMAND. 



nerve and muscle strained, his long brown hair that had not seen a barber 
for three months at least, drifting where it would, his bare feet firmly 
planted on the cold, wet deck, his teeth set, and his nightgown whipping 
about him in the wind like a torn sail. Regardless of everything, he was 
keeping the Snowbird bowling along as close to the wind as he could 
hold her. 

Scott simply said, " Louise / " and motioned forward with his hand. 
Roy made for the prow. But it was starboard and port ; it was twist and 
turn, in and out among rocks and islands, through the heavy, drifting 
fog, till they were almost back again to Hestmand, and after twelve 
hours of dodging, tacking, careening, bumping more than once and 
straining their eyes in vain, they gave up in despair and headed again 
for the Trondhjem fjord. 

' That was the Lomse, or I'm an Esquimau ! " Scott muttered. 

"Well, she'd not be round here now, any way," Roy replied. 

" She was going south when I called you, sir," said the pilot. 



122 



A LONG CHASE. 




THE FORTRESS OF MONKHOLMON. 



" She was headed due west when I saw her," Scott added. 
" From which she was just as likely to be going northeast in reality, 
as any other way," Roy put in ; " for a snake wouldn't twist any more 
than we have to, to get around 
these rocks." 

" I think she was either going 
in or coming out from Trondh- 
jem, sir," said the pilot. 

" That's explicit," Scott 
growled, for he was not at all 
satisfied with their night's work. 
" It means that either we shall 
find her or we sha'n't. I like to 
work on a sure thing, like that." 

" Well, it's all that's left us," 
said Roy. " And it's a good 
deal to know that she's in these 

waters. If she's been in here we shall hear from her. If she's waiting- 
for the fog to lift she'll follow us. If she's gone in already we shall 
find her. You've caught cold, Scott, running through the fog in your 

nightgown. Take some quinine 
and a good sleep, and I'll stay 
on deck. If we sight the north- 
east shadow of her ghost, I'll 
call you." 

Scott was not called. They 
entered the fjord, passing the 
little fortress of Monkholmon, 
and for the first time ran the 
little Snowbird under the can- 
non's mouth. It was a very 
quiet cannon, however, and so 
was the famous fjord up which 
they wound their way. 

Here and there they passed 
enormous storehouses, where fish were drying and dried, and through a 
rift in the hills they could occasionally catch glimpses of the spires and 
towers of Trondhjem's cathedral, while the pilot repeated some of the 




STOREHOUSES OF TRONDHJEM. 




IN THE CATHEDRAL PORCH. 



A LONG CHASE. 



J 25 



grand old stories of Norwegian lore; of King Olaf who founded Trondh- 
jem almost a thousand years ago ; how his mother fled with him from 
Norway, when he was a baby prince, to save his life from a usurper ; how 
he was captured by pirates, sold as a slave, escaped, married an Irish 
maid, was converted to her religion, returned to Norway, became king 
and at once christianized the whole of Norway at the point of the sword. 

Another turn in the fjord brought the city of Trondhjem into full 
view as it lay upon a low hill, completely surrounded by the great mount- 
ains of Norway. 

" It was in yonder cathedral," said the pilot, " that our good King 
Oscar II., and his queen Sophia, were crowned, in the summer of 1873." 







si^. i ..'^'-'isrr i - 



i M 







¥^ 



TRONDHJEM. 



The Snowbird dropped anchor where she could quickly be got under 
way, in case the Louise appeared. The pilot was to keep a lookout and 
run up a signal in case she was seen, while the boys took the gig and 
went on shore to learn what they could from the wharves. 

Everything seemed solemn and still. Nothing was going on any 
where; but they were assured that no brig named Lotiise, no vessel at all 
from America, had been in port there for months. 

They must wait at least a day to see if she was coming; and to make 
the best of it they wandered about the quaint and quiet old city. 

They climbed the hill to the cathedral, fantastically decorated with 
men and animals in every conceivable shape and size. Cautiously they 



126 



A LONG CHASE. 



entered the open door, where several women in bright and very pretty 
costumes sat in a sort of vestibule, with two or three uneasy children. 

"I'll bet it's a christening!" Roy whispered. "They're waiting out 
here till the sermon's done." 

"Sermon!" Scott muttered with a short gasp. " It is Sunday, isn't 
it? and that is why everything's so still ? " 

" I believe it must be, Scott. I say, we haven't had much opportunity 
for preaching lately. Let's go in." 

They pulled off their hats, and very gravely and solemnly crept 
through the open door. They were more thoroughly frightened than 
when they faced the polar bear or knew that the Snowbird was sailing 
directly over the famous Maelstrom, south of the Loffoden Islands. 

They seated themselves on the very first bench they could reach, and 
sat with folded hands, reverently looking up at the tall man in a long 
black gown and a great white ruff, who was standing in a high pulpit 
evidently preaching a sermon. In their embarrassment they sat in this 
way for nearly ten 
minutes before they 
realized that he was 
preaching in Nor- 
wegian, and they 
could not under- 
stand a word he said. 

In time they be- 
came uneasy, and 
nudging Roy with 
his foot, Scott 
whispered : 

" Let's cast off. 
Do you suppose 
there's any law 
against going out ?" 

"What's the matter with staying? We don't get any too much 
church nowadays," Roy whispered back. 

" I know it," said Scott, " but I can't help it. I'll be asleep in one 

minute more." 

Roy looked cautiously over his shoulder, and seeing a clear coast, 
crept quickly and silently out again, followed by Scott. 




— -®bi 



THE TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL. 



A LONG CHASE. 



129 



The Snowbird lay below without a signal, so they went on over the 
hill, past pretty little cottages and queer-looking peasants in thick 
wooden shoes, pausing to examine several specimens of ancient Nor- 
wegian architecture, and coming to a full stop before a vehicle at which 
they stared in blank astonishment. 

There were two wheels and two strong 
thills. They protruded behind the axle, where 
they were united by a curved arm, and they 
evidently protruded in front of the horse when 
he was harnessed into them. Between the horse 
and axle a curious contrivance rose above the 
thills, very much like the bowl of a spoon, form- 
ing a seat just large enough for one. There was 
no floor under it, but two large iron loops at- 
tached to the thills seemed intended for foot- 
rests. 

" What a funny contrivance," said Roy, with 
a laugh. 

" Wonder if that fair-faced fossil standing 
beside it belongs to it," Scott remarked. 

" He wouldn't know enough to tell you if 
you asked him," Roy replied. " It's a Nor- 
wegian sulky of ancient date, I reckon. Let's 
go on." 

" Wait till you see me scrape acquaintance 
with him, through the great volapuk of signs," 
said Scott, stepping toward the man. 

He paused for a moment, with his hands 
in his pockets, wondering how to begin, when 
the fellow turned half-about, and with a pleasant smile remarked: 

" That, gentlemen, is a carjol " (he pronounced it car-y-ole), " the only 
native carriage of Norway. It holds but one, beside a possible driver 
seated there behind, for where it is not downhill in Norway, it is sure to 
be uphill, and our little ponies have all they can do to manage one 
passenger apiece. I worked in a mill at Hartford, on the Connecticut 
River, for ten years, and saw a good deal of your country. If you will 
accept my carjols and ponies for an hour or two I should like to show 
you some of mine." 




IN THE PULPIT. 



A LONG CHASE. 



Without waiting for a reply, which it might have been embarrassing 
to prepare, he trudged leisurely away and soon appeared leading two 
stubbed little ponies which he harnessed into two carjols. 

Each boy had to drive for himself, while the host seated himself be- 
hind the first carjol, where he could walk up and down the steepest hills 
and converse with both the boys. Huge rocks, and mountains bleak and 
bare and black swept up in great precipitous ledges. Waterfalls were 
everywhere ; rising in the clouds and plunging down, varnishing the rocks 

with purple as they passed — 
leaping, roaring, thundering 
till in clouds of spray and 
tangled rainbows they 
plunged into some dark fjord 
down below. 

Such was the glimpse of 
Norway which Roy and Scott 
obtained in a drive of two 
hours, bumping along in the 
only wheeled vehicle which 
can accommodate itself to 
that grand and wonderful 
country. 

They stopped to rest and 
lunch with a friend of their 
host, living upon another 
fjord. He could not speak 
a word of English, but the 
boys were astonished to find 
that they understood a good 
deal of what he said. 
"Why," said the miller, "before I could speak any English I was in 
the Scotch Highlands, and could easily understand the peasants there, 
and they could understand me ; but in London I could not understand a 
thing. Now it is quite changed since I have learned English. I can 
understand Englishmen, but can make nothing out of the Scotch 
dialect." 

On their return they saw a fellow sitting alone upon a green bank, 
so engrossed in playing a violin that he did not look up as they passed. 




NORWEGIAN PEASANT. 




WSXm 





I At? 





A GLIMPSE OF NORWAY. 



A LONG CHASE. 



133 



" You have fiddles here, at any rate," said Scott. 

"Fiddles?" replied the miller. "Have you forgotten that this was 
the home of Ole Bull ? " 

The first glimpse of the Snowbird 's mast showed them that the Louise 
had not appeared. They arranged with the miller to telegraph them at 
Bergen if she came in 
and sailed away to that 
ancient little city, brim- 
ming full of rare old 
stories of Norwegian 
lore of the days when 
theVikings roamed the 
sea, and when the 
kings of Norway were 
crowned at Bergen ; but 
it had not a word for 
them of the Louise, 

and again they arranged to be notified at Christiansand, the most south- 
ern city of Norway, and the little Snowbird rounded the Naze, and 
among beautiful islands, huge rocks and wild mountain fjords, came out 
upon the broad, smooth bay which lies before Christiansand ; one of the 
most picturesque and tempting resting places to be found in the wide, 
wide world. 

Their only glimpse of the city, however, was that one view from the 
bay; for as soon as the Snowbird appeared a boat put out from the shore 
to meet her, with a telegram for Captain Royal Sargent, American 
bark Snowbird, from the port of Bergen : 




'WHAT A FUNNY CONTRIVANCE." 



" The brig Louise is anchored here." 

Even before the Snowbird lost her headway she was put about. A 
double watch was kept all the way back, but in the dozen different 
passages among the islands there was every chance to pass within a mile 
or two and never see her. At Bergen a message from the miller awaited 
them: 

" The brig Louise is at the wharf." 

They sailed again to that distant fjord, only to find that she had 
loaded for Christiania, and sailed a week before. 



134 



A LONG CHASE. 



"Captain Downing has gone mad!" said Roy decidedly; but they 
sailed back again over the same path — half of the entire length of Nor- 
way, for the third time, to Christiansand, and almost as much farther up 
the Skager-Rack and Christianian fjord to the modern capital of Norway. 
At first they thought of going across Norway, by almost the only railroad 
in the country, from Trondhjem to Christiania, but decided on the 
chances of overtaking the Louise, and crowding on all the sail which 
the Snowbird could carry they urged her on till the summer palace of 
the king appeared before them overlooking the fjord from a beautiful 
knoll, rising above the capital. 

There was little about this city that was suggestive of the wild, grand 
country to which it belonged. They walked for an hour down the broad 
clean streets, bordered with low, substantial, tile-roofed houses. They 
paused for a moment before the stern and solid Parliament buildings, but 







; 



ggr- r^^MW^ff^S^v- 




NATURE ABOUT TRONDHIF.M. 



it was simply while they waited, nervously enough, for the water-tanks to 
be filled, and a fresh stock of provisions to be taken on board; for, to 
their utter chagrin, they heard only the same old story: the Louise had 
been there, and only four-and-twenty hours before had sailed for 
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. 




THE HOME OF OLE BULL." 



A LONG CHASE. 



137 



" Roy Sargent ! " Scott exclaimed, " I wish you'd kick me from here 
to North Cape and back again,, overland all the way. It would do me 
good. It took us two months to reach Trondhjem from home, and 
before we see Stockholm we shall have thrown away almost two months 




more knocking up and down this coast. Why in the world didn't I 
agree with you to come here by rail ? " 

" I thought just as you did," Roy replied. " And I'll kick you up to 
North Cape if you'll kick me back here again. But we'd better put it off, 
just now, and make for Stockholm." 

Changing pilots, as their Norwegian friend was not acquainted with 
the coast beyond, they sailed up the Cattegat, only catching a glimpse, 
here and there, of the coast towns of Sweden ; enough to realize that in 
surrounding foliage, as well as mountains and architecture, they were very 
different from treeless, rocky Norway, and at last, with winter close upon 
them, entered the great harbor of Stockholm. 

Two pairs of sharp eyes bent to one end, were not long in penetrating 
the forest of masts lying along the wharves, and discovering the familiar 
outline of the brig Louise, upon whose deck they had been cleaning cod- 
fish in the early springtime, a few months before, little dreaming of 
what lay in the near future. 



138 



A LONG CHASE. 



The Snowbird came to anchor in the bay, and with pale faces and 
trembling hands Roy and Scott pulled away in the gig, straight for where 
the Loicise was lying. 

What did they care for the great city, that beautiful Venice of the 
North, with all its canals, its huge steamers, its great ships from all over 
the world, its royal palace rising above the city like some monster 
coming up out of the sea, its great warehouses, its tall and graceful 
church spires, its statues and monuments everywhere, its long line of 




1 CHRISTIANSAND, A TEMPTING RESTING PLACE." 



fisher women coming down the wharf ? Their eyes and thoughts were 
bent upon the brig Louise. 

Flags of all nations were flying about them, but they did not even 
notice that the red, yellow and blue of Sweden floated from the masthead 
of the brig. They were watching her deck, and, making the gig fast, 
they gained that point without delay. 

A Swedish sailor sat smoking upon a coil of rope. He answered 
Scott's inquiry for Captain Downing with a shrug of his shoulders, a 
shake of his head and a long-drawn " Y-a-a-s." 

" Is he on board ? " said Roy. 



A LONG CHASE. 



I 4 I 



" Y-a-a-s," replied the sailor. 

" Tell him that we want to see him at once," said Scott. 

" Y-a-a-s," drawled the sailor, with a pleasant grin, still solemnly- 
shaking his head. 

" Well, why don't you start ? " Roy exclaimed, impatiently stamping 
his foot. 

Seeing that 
something must be 
done, the sailor 
withdrew his pipe, 
shrugged his shoul- 
ders again, grinned 
from ear to ear, 
and still shaking 
his head, remarked 
apologetically : 

" Me no sabe, 
sir, me no sabe." 




STREET OF CHRISTIANIA. 



" Well, is there 
any one on board 
who does ? " Roy 
cried, while Scott, 
too impatient to 
stand still longer, 
started for the 
cabin by the path 
he knew so well. 

As he reached 
the foot of the 
companion-way, he 
discovered a burly 
red-nosed, weather- 
beaten fellow, 
sprawled out there at his ease, smoking a huge pipe and drinking from 
an enormous mug of beer. 

" I want to see the captain," Scott began without ceremony. 
"Y-a-a-s," replied the stalwart seaman, without lifting his eyes. 




THE SUMMER PALACE, CHRISTIANIA. 



142 



A LONG CHASE. 



" Well, I want to see him now," said Scott. 

" Y-a-a-s," replied the giant, taking a leisurely whiff from his pipe. 

Very slowly, very loud, and somewhat savagely from his curbed excite- 
ment, Scott repeated : 

" I want to see the captain of this brig Louise." 

" Y-a-a-s," drawled the other, watching the smoke as it curled away. 

Fortunately, Roy appeared at this moment, and Scott turned to him 
in utter disgust. 

" I say, Roy, here's another of these ' no sabe ' chaps, making 
himself at home as though he belonged here, and agreeing with 
everything I say." 

" What in the name of wonder is Captain Downing doing with such 
a crowd? " Roy replied, and turning to the big fellow he tried his hand, 
shouting in his plainest English: 

" The captain ! captain ! Want to see the captain ! Come, Dutchie, 
you can surely understand that much." 

Very slowly the fellow took his pipe from his mouth, lifted his sleepy 




PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CHRISTIANIA. 



eyes till they rested upon the two excited boys, and very deliberately he 
replied: 

" O, y-a-a-s ! I onderstant dot mouch blenty veil py dis dime. No 



A LONG CHASE. 



H5 



need to spile your voice. Five dimes you dells me you vants de captain 
of dis prig Louise, and five dimes I dells you y-a-a-s, I vas at your 
service. Ven you don't got satisfied mit dot, I dells you y-a-a-s again." 

" Are you the captain of this brig Louise ? " Scott gasped. 

The fellow brought his big fist down on the table, exclaiming: 




A GLIMPSE OK SWEDEN. 



" Mein Gott ! I give it to 
you shoust vonce more : y-a-a-s ! 
Now s'pose you got any pees- 
ness, better drop dot mouch 
und sbeak him oud, ain't it ? " 
Scott and Roy looked at each other for a moment in utter bewilder- 
ment, and Roy was actually upon the point of repeating that same old 
question, when the fellow pushed back his mug of beer, laid down his 
pipe and, with a facial contortion which was evidently intended for a 
genial smile, remarked ■: 

" Kome, now, young fellars, vat you vants mit de captain of dis prig 
Louise? " 

" We don't want anything of you," said Scott. " We want Captain 
Downing." 

" Veil, you komes good vays afterwards for dot," he replied slowly, 
drumming on the table. " Dree monds ago I sinks my sheep in a pig 



146 



A LO-YG CHASE. 



storm, py St. John's, Newfoundland und me und mine sailors is shoust 
vaiting dere for somedings, ven oup komes dis Captain Downing und de 
prig Louise. Veil, he vants to seel, und I vants to puy. So." 

" Well, where is he and his daughter now ? " Roy asked. 

" Vere's a flee vat pites me last somer?" he replied with a hoarse 
laugh. " I done know. He sheats me like everydings on dis prig, und 
he don't sheat me no more, nor no odder Yankee." 

" Can't you tell us which way he went ? " Scott asked. 

" O, y-a-a-s ! " he drawled, returning to his pipe. "He dakes dot 




FISHER WOMEN COMING DOWN THE WHARF." 



gall, und goes on poard a sdeamer pound for Denmarks, mit my pies- 
sing und my monish ; y-a-a-s." 

Scott and Roy returned to the Sncnvbird and set her beak across the 
water westward, over the Baltic Sea and into the Gulf of Finland. 



A LONG CHASE. 



147 



Their last glimpse of Stockholm was a merry crowd of fisherwomen, 
barefooted, or in thick wooden shoes, coming singing down the wharves, 
with their day's catch in baskets made of coarse grass. 

" I'll tell you, Roy, Captain Downing has got a head on him," 
said Scott. " He was too big a 
man for codfishing. Here he 
has been in Russia for three full 
months at least, while we have 
been waltzing through the Arc- 
tics after the shadow of his old 
reefer." 

" I wonder what he's been 
doing with himself," said Roy. 
" He must have got pretty well 
settled by this time. I thought 
all the time that he was mad, 
but I guess you were 



right. 



Who'd have thought of his sell- 
making a 



stranger 







ing the Louise and 
short cut, that way." 

" I reckon fact's 
than fiction, every time," Scott 
replied. " And when you're done, 

if we get him in the end, and it all comes out right, I'm not sorry 
that even a fool's errand took us through the Arctics." 

" Nor I ! " said Roy, decidedly. 



OSCAR II., KING OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 



CHAPTER IX. 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



THE Snowbird entered the Gulf of Finland, bounding on with a 
northwest wind that was sharp and keen like Greenland. Winter 
was coming down upon them in earnest. 

At mid-day it was still warm, however, and then the fishing smacks 
were still abundant, dodging about, pointed at stem and stern alike. 

One, that shot close under the stern of the Snowbird, made Scott's 
heart beat fast and his cheeks grow red, all because beside the angular 
old fisherman holding his craft to the wind, sat his daughter, with flaxen 
hair and clear blue eyes, and a sober, earnest face. She was so much 
like Vera — more like Vera than any one he had ever seen before; yes, 
Vera, too, was a Russian. It was only the great family resemblance of 
nations, no doubt, and Scott, ashamed of himself, tried to remember that 
all that he was doing, trying to do, and determined to do, was to the end 
that Vera should go back to Russia and be beyond all thought of him 
forever, and still his heart beat fast in spite of him, all because a girl 
who reminded him of Vera, in a rude fishing smack, shot under the lee 
of the Snowbird. 

"Just look at that village up the river yonder," Roy exclaimed. 
. " Bother the village ! " Scott replied. " I want St. Petersburg." 

It was not much of a village ; only a half-dozen fantastic houses, a 
few fantastic people, two windmills for grain and lumber, and a wonder- 
fully fantastic church. It was a real little exponent of Russia, however, 

14S 



I- " '"' ' 



/■"i'I'.'.'u. 1 '■ J. ... I. ..." I , .. 




V 

Jt 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



*5* 



just as Fiskenaes was of Greenland, St. John's of Newfoundland, Trondh- 
jem of Norway ; just as the fisherman's daughter was like Vera, because 
they were both Russians — the little village was very like its country. 

The Snowbird flew onward till met by a harbor police-boat, and an 
officer who ordered them to drop anchor off Kronstadt, at the entrance 
to the bay of Peterhof, twenty miles below St. Petersburg, and rigjtt 




SHE WAS SO MUCH LIKE VERA. 



under the mouth of a dozen yawning cannon, in the little round forts 
protecting the entrance. 

The official could speak French, but no English, and tha pilot acted 
as interpreter. 

A strange feeling of dread crept over the boys. A ponderous official 
in a gorgeous uniform, had deliberately taken command of their little 
Snowbird, and now he proceeded to take command of them. 

He demanded their papers. 



152 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



Papers ? They had none. Then their commissions ? They never 
had any. Their passports ? They had never obtained any. Had they 
anything, reasonable or unreasonable, to justify their coming deliberately 
into the harbor of Kronstadt ? 

" We own the Snowbird, for the time being, at least. We carry no 
passengers. We carry no freight. We ask no favors of any one," Scott 

declared. 

" Precisely," replied the official ; " which makes it the more incumbent 
upon me to ask what you are here for." 

" On business," Roy replied. 

"Evidently," said the official, with an insinuating smile. "Will you 
tell me what business ? It will be quite necessary before you advance." 




UNDER THE GUNS OK KRONSTADT. 



" I don't think I hardly could," Roy responded, looking at Scott. 
"Then I shall be obliged to find out for myself," said the official. 
At which Scott's nature, which many a time had got the better of his 




!t;:«£»-'/.'.\'. 




ALEXANDERS COLUMN 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



!55 



judgment, sprang to the front, and with his hands well down in his 
pockets, and his head a little on one side he replied : 

" I'll bet this bark that you don't find out what our business is unless 
we decide to tell you." 

The officer made no reply, but quietly invited the boys to enter his 
steam launch. 

They realized that it was really a command, and with the strong 




THE BRIDGE OVER THE NEVA. 



argument of a dozen well-armed marines just below, and half of the 
cannon of Kronstadt within range, they decided to accept. 

They were placed in comfortable quarters, but kept constantly under 
guard. 

At the end of three days they were brought before a magistrate, and 
told their story. Then for a week more they were kept in close con- 
finement, unable to obtain one word of information about anything. 

A change came, however. They were taken on board a police-boat, 
sent down into a dingy cabin where they could see nothing but water, 
and carried for twenty miles up the bay. Then they were taken on shore. 



156 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



A magnificent city burst suddenly upon their view as they emerged 
from the dark cabin. The police-boat lay on the bosom of a broad river. 
High walls of rose-granite on either side, held it within bounds. They 
knew that it must be the Neva. A massive stone bridge was before 




.feii ; _j!!iiiiiiiiffiSiS 



.-■linimffl fllfflillffl MfflBlfflE 
~~"i , iffii: , ;i|iiinnnnmnumi*H M' WA 



±&- 



: St LK Ci 



^^ 



STATUE OF THE TZAR NICHOLAS. 



them. Broad avenues extended in different directions, and massive 
buildings rose on every hand. 

One glimpse of St. Petersburg ! then they were hurried into a carriage 
that was evidently waiting for them. With a coachman and footman in 
livery, and with mounted soldiers in front and behind, they started at 
a breakneck pace, through the broad streets of Russia's capital. 

" I call this rather fine in its way," said Scott, leaning back in the 
upholstered carriage. " How old-fashioned everybody looks ! " 

" I believe they run on the old calendar in Russia, with Christmas 
and New Year's twelve days behind ours, and perhaps they have never 
caught up in anything else either," said Row 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. l $j 

" Do you suppose that we are prisoners, Roy ? " 

" Looks like it, doesn't it ? I never was a prisoner before, and I don't 
know how it feels, but I rather guess that we are prisoners of the Tzar." 

" I don't mind it much, do you ? " said Scott. 

" I'd rather be in open water on the deck of the Snowbird!' 

" I wouldn't, until I'd seen St. Petersburg ; and as far as the coach 
goes this isn't a bad way to see it, for a change. Look there, now, 
isn't that a fine old arch ? See those bronze horses. Do you suppose 
real horses ever pranced like that ? Glory ! how we spun under it ! " 

" Jehu ! " Roy exclaimed, as they drew near a great square, with a 
graceful pillar, one round shaft of highly polished rose-granite, eighty 
feet high, upon an enormous pedestal, towering nearly thirty feet in the 
air. " I wish they'd drive slower, for with no chart of the city, and no 
pilot aboard, a fellow wants to have a good long, look at things to 
remember them and find out afterwards what they are." 

" Bother what they are ! " said Scott, laughing. " They're every bit 
as fine to me as though I knew a dozen names for them. Look at that 
statue, now, and — oh ! just look at the pedestal. Whew! that was fine. 
I suppose it was some Tzar, or saint, or something or other ; but what 
difference does it make ? " 

" I do wish he'd drive slower," Roy repeated, as they turned swiftly 
round another corner, changing the scene entirely to a series of public 
buildings of some sort, decorated with massive columns on every hand, 
and statues everywhere, with a beautiful garden upon their right. 

" Do you mind the style of the one-horse teams, Roy ? For all the 
world they're like pictures I've seen of Irish jaunting-cars, only they are 
lower, and have four wheels instead of two." 

" Didn't have time to notice the vehicles," Roy replied. " I was look- 
ing at the drivers' hats and at those big loops from the ends of the thills 
going over the horses' heads. I wonder what earthly use they are ! " 

" If everything you see has got to have its use explained to you, you'd 
best ask the Government to send a guide along, next time it transfers us," 
Scott answered, laughing heartily. " The fact i's, I don't care a straw 
whether a statue is used to hold down a pedestal, or the pedestal to hold 
up the statue." 

" At any rate, I'll bet that the next time you come to Russia you'll 
bring your business card with you, and present it before it is called for," 
said Roy. 



'5» 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



" P'r'aps I shall and p'r'aps I sha'n't," said Scott, reflecting for a mo- 
ment. " I'll tell you what it is, Roy ; I reckon that Russia is a pretty 
tough place to get into successfully, and I shouldn't wonder if, in the 
end, we found that we had got into it just as successfully, if not quite so 
gracefully, as if we had worked it all up in advance." 

" I wish I had your hopeful heart, Scott. It's a grand thing when 
one gets into trouble." 

" Well, I wish I had your level head, Roy. It's a regular field- 
marshal for keeping one out of trouble." 

Here their carriage dashed toward an enormous building, stretching 




"THEY TURNED ANOTHER CORNER. ' : 



for nearly a quarter of a mile upon the broad street and as far back upon 
a side street. It was three stories high, magnificently decorated, and 
guarded at every entrance by armed soldiers, while over the principal 
entrance floated the flag of Russia. 

" It don't look much like a prison," said Scott. 

" I believe, upon my word, that it's a palace," Roy added. 

" Do you suppose these dummies are taking us to call upon the Tzar ? " 

" I believe they are," Roy replied, as the door was opened by a fellow, 
all gold and lace, and they were evidently invited to follow him. 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



161 



Through the massive portal they entered a grand corridor, glistening 
with marble and agate and gold ; then up two flights of marble stairs 
and along another corridor, adorned with statues and bright with blue 




THE TZAR GAVE THEM A SLEIGHRIDE. 



enamel ; turning to the right, then turning to the left, till they were 
utterly bewildered. 

"They can't seem to find the Tzar," Scott whispered ; "but it must 
be awkward to have to trot visitors all over the house to hunt him up." 

" I believe it would have been cheaper to have walked up from the 
wharf and taken a carriage after we got here," Roy remarked as they still 
kept on and on. 

" Don't you trouble yourself about economy, Roy," Scott whispered 
back. " The Tzar will be glad enough to pay the bills when he finds out 
who has come to see him." 

At that moment thev were ushered into a fine large room, with 
a grate fire roaring a welcome, with two little beds, several easy chairs, a 



l62 



JRISONEXS OF THE TZAR. 



table, a toilet room at one side and two long windows, so curiously 
guarded by awnings that they could see nothing but the sky. 

As the door closed behind them and they were left alone, Scott 
turned to Roy. He could not help laughing at the solemn, anxious face 
he saw, and waving his hand exclaimed : 

" Sit down, Captain Sargent, and make yourself at home. The Tzar 
has stepped out for a moment. I reckon he's gone to the barn, for I see 
he's taken the milk pail along with him ; but he'll be in directly. 
There ! " 

There was a tap on the door. 

"For mercy's sake, keep still, Scott!" Roy whispered hurriedly, as 
the door opened and another individual all gold lace appeared, followed 

by two more who deposited a smoking 
breakfast upon the table. 

" I don't see how they kept it so hot 

if they came up the way we did," 

Scott observed as they sat down 

began to eat with excellent 

appetites. 

On the second 
day after their arri- 
val they were vis- 
ited by three grand 
officials with clerks 
and papers and pens 
as well as an interpreter. 

They were questioned carefully con- 
cerning themselves, from the cradle to 
Kronstadt, and everything was scrupu- 
lously committed to writing. It took so 

imova — a Russian 
contrivance for keeping tea at a boiling 
point — was brought in, and a tray of 
dried salt fish and crackers, and the offi- 
cials ate and sipped and talked. 
When everything was settled as far as Kronstadt, Scott thought his 
turn had come to ask some questions concerning themselves from Kron- 
stadt on. His questions were all recorded, but not an answer could he 



W** 




THE STREETS TRANSFORMED. 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



163 



obtain. Then Roy tried his hand, and said he supposed they had a right 
to communicate with some official of the American Legation. That 
too, was recorded, and the whole party bowed very politely and left them 
alone again. 

" What's the use of talking to men like that, any way," Roy 
muttered. 

" I expect we shall find out when they are ready to let us know, and 
I don't think we shall before," said Scott, looking up at the sky. " It's 




AN OPEN FIRE AT THE STATION. 



snowino- like mad, Roy. Winter's set in, and no mistake. Wonder if 
the Tzar wouldn't accommodate us with a sleighride if we put it right. 
The streets are transformed. Hark ! hear the sleighbells." 

" I wish we had the Snowbird out of the Gulf of Finland," Roy 
muttered ; but a week went by, and they had neither left their quarters 
nor heard a single word which they could understand. 

At last, however, something happened. A man without any attend- 
ing clerks or pens or ink came in alone, and seated himself beside the 
table. He was a plain, common-sense looking fellow, with silver strands 



164 



PHISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



in his hair and beard, but he seemed to be thoroughly accustomed to 
himself, and he spoke excellent English. The boys took a fancy to him 
at once. 

"Young gentlemen," he said, " by a little accident some high officials 




tiff 



Mm 



j-^j^: 



--- 



"ACCOMMODATING THEMSELVES TO THE RAILROAD." 

of the Russian Government became acquainted with the curious story 
which you told the magistrate at Kronstadt. They were interested, 
and resolved to investigate the matter. They have done so and are 
satisfied that you are right. Now they propose to aid you, if they can." 
"Roy! didn't I tell you so ?" burst unexpectedly from Scott's lips, 
and made him blush to the very roots of his hair. 



PJifSOXERS OF THE TZAR. 



165 



" You were quite right, if you did," the visitor replied with a friendly 
smile. " Now they have learned this much : the man whom you repre- 
sent as Captain Downing, reached Sebastopol, at the extreme south of 
Russia, about three months ago. The estates in question are chiefly 
located there. He had with him a young girl whom you represent as his 
daughter, whom he represents as a child adopted in infancy and heir to 
the estates. He presented as proof the family jewels belonging to her 
mother, the marriage certificate, birth record and sufficient other matter 
to convince the courts, and all the law allowed, in the time that has 
elapsed, of the property has been turned over to her. It will be 
necessary for us to take you, under a nominal guard, to Moscow, then 
to the estates to identify the two and have them summoned to an investi- 




LATE FOR THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. 



gation. If there are any questions which you wish to ask before I go 1 
chall be glad to answer them." 

" I'd like to know about the Snowbird, our vessel," said Roy. "She'll 
be frozen in before we can get back again if we leave her at Kronstadt. 

" For that reason," replied the stranger, " she was dismantled four 
days ago, and is now being transported to Taganrog, on the Sea of 



i66 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



Azof. By the time you reach Sebastopol she will be floating in the fjo*d 
of Balaklava, a few miles away, precisely as you left her at Kronstadt, 
restocked with the best that Russia can supply, with your crew on board 
in charge of an officer who will remain with her till, at your pleasure, he 
has piloted you safely through the Bosporus, the Dardanelles and Sea of 
Marmora, when he will furnish you with proper papers to avoid any 
future contingency." 

Scott was doubtful. He stood with his hands in his pockets, leaning 
asainst the wall. His head was a little on one side as he remarked: 

" If you are making fun of us it 
is a mean thing to do." 

The Russian simply smiled in the 
same friendly way, and replied : 

" Necessity is the mother of in- 
vention. We have transported larger 
vessels than yours, bodily, from Kron- 
stadt to Taganrog. If you have 
nothing else to ask I must bid you 
oood-morninsf." 

" I should like to know, sir, the 
name of this building where we have 
been so kindly cared for," Roy said 
as he took the stranger's proffered 
hand in parting. 

" It is called ' The Winter Pal- 
ace,' " he replied. 

" And I," said Scott, " if it is not 

impertinent — I should like to know 

your name. To you, sir, or to some one, we owe a great deal." 

" My name? " replied the stranger as he opened the door. " Really, I 

can hardly remember it myself. I am a most unenviable man, my friend 

— I am the Tzar. Good-morning, and God speed you." 

The boys stood looking at each other. They were still standing and 
looking, and neither had spoken a word, when a man in gold lace 
appeared and conducted them to a coach, this time on runners, with four 
horses and outriders ; and after all, the Tzar gave them a sleighride. 

The horses flew over the frozen ground to the merry jangle of the 
bells, and as they drew up at the railway station they noticed a great fire 




I AM THE TZAR. 



PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 



167 



blazing in the open square, fed by Government servants, about which a 
crowd was gathered, driving out the chills of early winter. 

An engine and one car stood ready in the station, and the moment 




A RUSSIAN MAIL SLEDGE. 



they stepped on board with the official who was to accompany them, it 
started away like the wind for a run of four hundred miles to Moscow, 
straight as the crow flies, over a road laid out by the Emperor Nicholas. 
He came into the room when his engineers were quarreling and disput- 
ing over the twists and turns of a road between the two capitals which 
should accommodate itself to all the towns upon the way. Nicholas 
listened to their arguments for a moment, then caught up a ruler. 
With one end at St. Petersburg and the other at Moscow, as they 
appeared upon the map, he drew his pen 
along the edge. 

" There," said he, " lay out your rail- 
road along that line." And now the 
towns by the way accommodate them- 
selves to the railroad instead. 

All along the way, for the first hun- 
dred miles and more, the snow lay deep ^p 
upon the ground. The stations were lo- ^ 
cated as near the towns as the straight 
line allowed, but there were always long 
lines of sledges comino; and soins, con- 
necting them with the towns. 

Near midnight, as they were approaching a station they passed a 
wealthy farmer or nobleman lying upon a sledge drawn by three horses 




RUSSIAN MAIL WAGON. 



It, 



PR7S0XERS OF THE TZAR. 



abreast whne the driver stood up lashing the horses and shouting evi- 
dently mistaking the special for the midnight express and fearing that his 
master would be left. 

The mail was brought to the stations upon curious sledges, which 
sometimes made a journey of nearly a hundred miles. Once, coming 
from a little village not more than a mile away, they passed a woman, 
bringing the mail upon a miniature coach, drawn by a pair of huge 
mastiffs, wallowing through the snow. 

" Scott Campbell," said Roy, " do you realize 
that we have been to St. Petersburg and gone 
away without setting foot upon a single street. 




or knowing the name of a single building. 



church, gallery, museum or college^ except the 
Winter Palace? : ' 

"Who cares ? ,: said Scott. "Ten thousand 
Yankees have known them all ; but I am an 
Esquimau if I don't believe that they would 
swap the whole, twice over, to spend a week in 
the Winter Palace, and chat and shake hands 
with that unenviable man the Tzar." 

As they rolled along there were many ques- 
tions to ask, but the official refused to pay the 
slightest heed to anything but their require- 
ments of rest and refreshment. They crossed 
the four hundred miles of forests and marshes, 
left the winter far behind them and entered the 
almost Oriental city of Moscow. 

There a carriage was again in waiting, and 
again, like Jehu the driver drove furiously; but 
two pairs of bright, sharp eyes saw a great deal 
of the famous old capital of Russia in a short, 
quick drive. First, they crossed a great stone 
bridge, upon a series of graceful arches, with 
the Kremlin in full view ; a walled city, in itself two miles in circumfer- 
ence, in the very heart of the great city of Moscow. 

Within that inner wall rose churches, palaces, monasteries, arsenals, 
art galleries and museums with grandly decorated walls and towers, domes 
and spires, flashing with gold, glistening in enamel. 



JEWEL VAULT. 



!t]>K 




PKISONEJiS OF THE TZAR. 



171 



As they crossed the bridge, and the carriage rolled under a magnifi- 
cent arched gateway to enter this inner city, the driver removed his hat, 
the officer followed his example, and indicated to the boys that they must 
do the same. They obeyed, without knowing that above their heads, pro- 




THE GREAT HELL. 



tected by the overhanging of the arch, was a picture of the Saviour,. 
and that they were entering the Kremlin by the Redeemer's Gate. 

The Tzars are crowned within the Kremlin, and from the emperor to 
the meanest peasant every one removes his hat, and with uncovered head 
passes through that Redeemer's Gate. 

Upon their left rose the narrow but substantial tower, marking the 
Royal Jewel Vault. They were scarcely beyond it when something met 
their eyes which gave them a peculiar shock — like suddenly coming 
upon an old friend in the midst of the Sahara Desert. They had tra- 
versed one quarter of Russia without knowing the name of a single 
object which met their gaze, when suddenly they came upon something 



172 



FA'/SO.YEFS OF THE TZAR. 



in bewildering Moscow, which they knew as well as the boy born and 
bred within sight of it. It was the Tzar Kolokol, the Great Bell of Mos- 
cow. They had seen it in their geographies and illustrated readers. 
They had looked at it a hundred times. They knew all about it; that 
it was more than twenty feet high ; that it weighed four hundred 
thousand pounds ; that its metal alone was worth over two million dol- 
lars. And here it was, just like its pictures, looming up for an instant to 
greet them as they dashed past it. 

They only drove through the Kremlin, leaving it again by the St. 
Nicholas Gate, and out upon a broad road and a great square, with the 
wall of the Kremlin upon their right. There was a bronze group upon 
a rose-granite pedestal in the center of the street, with public buildings 




ST. NICHOLAS GATE. 



in every direction, and other streets as broad leading away in the most 
fantastic irregularity imaginable. 

They crossed the square, toward perhaps the most remarkable church 
on earth. It was, in reality, the Cathedral of Basil the Blessed, but in 
utter ignorance the boys watched it till the carriage stopped. 




CATHEDRAL OF BASIL THE BLESSED. 



PUIS ONERS OF THE TZAR. 



175 



It was one grand chaos of angles, towers and domes ; no two alike in 
shape or size or color; of all kinds of material and ail styles of archi- 
tecture ; a marvel, however one looked at it. 

The boys had only to go through a peculiar legal ceremony, and 
place their signatures upon papers already prepared, when they were 




APPROACHING THE CATHEDRAL. 



hurried back to their car asrain, which started at once for the south. 
Like a meteor, Moscow, the wealthiest of Russian cities, flashed before 
them, and in the flame expired, but they were too anxious to reach the 
distant Crimea to care how brief their stay had been. 



CHAPTER X. 

ON TO BALAKLAVA ! 

AS their car waited at a little station south of Tula for a train to the 
north to pass, they saw the mounted Cossacks forcing back the 
starving peasants who were making a weak effort to leave the village, in 
the vague hope of finding something somewhere, while in curious con- 
trast, on a bench upon the sunny side of the station, a group of children 
had gathered, and were singing away as though their lives depended on 
the amount of noise they made. One fellow was beating time, and 
another was playing on two fifes at once. 

At another station, while they were taking wood and water, they 
watched a group of peasants waiting for their share of a car-load of coarse 
flour and meal that was standing upon a side track, being dispensed by 
Government officials. 

They had little opportunity to know of the internal disturbances of 
which the world at large was constantly supplied with graphically 
distorted and wondrously exaggerated details. 

A group of ragged and disconsolate Jews, sitting on the ground to 
rest while they waited for the train to pass, recalled the unfortunate lot 
of the children of Israel in the empire, and more than once the destitute 
condition of some famine-stricken district appeared for an instant and 
was gone. That was all that they knew either of the persecution of the 
Jews or the terrors of the famine. Perhaps it was really all there was to 
know, or perhaps it was simply intended that they should not know. 

176 



ON TO BALAKLAVA! 



177 



They were only catching glimpses of a great reality in Russia, much 
as they had caught glimpses of those other realities, St. Petersburg and 
Moscow, and in time the car crossed the narrow isthmus, entered the 
peninsular of Crimea and stood in the station of Sebastopol. 

Here, to their surprise, they discovered that the officer who had 
accompanied them could speak very fair English. 

" The old reprobate ! " Scott muttered. " He didn't mean that we 
should bother him with questions. That's what's the matter." 

"And upon my word, I think he was rather bright," Roy replied, 
thinking how he would have plied the poor official, and kept him talking. 

" Wonder if we said much that was out of order? " Scott queried. 

" Presume so," Roy replied. " We generally do under such circum- 
stances. But he has himself to blame if he didn't like to hear us call 
him ' Rushy.' ' 

The officer had explained to them that there was a large house 




THE RUSSIAN CHILDREN S SONG. 



belonging to the estates in Sebastopol, and a large farm and country- 
house some two miles back upon the hills toward Balaklava, and had 
left them to wait while he made inquiries to learn where the supposed 
Captain Downing could be found. 

" Toward Balaklava ! " said Scott. " That's where the Snowbird 
was to wait for us." 



1 7 8 



OX TO BALAKLAVA! 



"Whatever have we heard at home about Balaklava?" Roy asked, 
scratching his head, in the sailor's inevitable gesture of thought. 

He was still thinking when Scott suddenly struck a tragic attitude, 
and throwing out one hand exclaimed : 



" ' Forward, the light brigade ! 
Charge for the guns ! ' he said. 



That's Balaklava, Roy. Hope we shall get a good peep at it." 




JEWS. 



A pretty Circassian girl, with a long, slender rod in her hand and a bas- 
ket on her arm, came up and, smiling, opened the basket, out of which 
hopped several little birds. Looking up she said, in English: 




HOLDING BACK THE STARVING PEASANTS. 



ON TO BALAKLAVA! 



181 



" Fine gentlemen, fine fortune. Me little birds tells fortunes true." 

There is always a peculiar fascination about gypsies, and a peculiar 
fascination to the sailor about having his fortune told. There is always 
an irresistible charm in one's own language, when one meets it unex- 
pectedly, and Scott, in his impulsive prodi- 
gality, put a gold piece in her hand. It 
was a Swedish coin, but it was all he had, 
and sold is arold the wide world over. 

She smiled, held out the rod, and two of 
the birds lit upon one end of it. She stood 
silently watching them. One began to hop 
away, and the other followed. The last one 
almost caught up and gave the first a peck, 
but he jumped away, and the last lost his 
balance, and would have fallen off the rod, 
but for the help of his wings. They kept 
it up till they reached the end of the rod ; 
then the first, grasping it in his feet, hung 
down, head-first, as though he were dead. 
A third bird flew up from the basket, lit on 
the end of the rod, and looked for a mo- 
ment at the bird which had been following. 
tie bird's kiss, and all three flew back to the basket. 

"So it is," said the pretty fortune teller. "One runs away, another 
follows. Sometimes he come near enough to peck, but almost fall, and 
only white wings save him. He come to sad end. He can't help. But 
one sweet kiss and all is bright. God bless young gentlemen," and she 
walked away. 

" You remember the hawk that fell dead upon the deck, at the very 
moment when we were laying our course to Greenland ? " said Roy. 

" Well ? " said Scott. 

" Well, that was a fool's errand. Captain Downing hadn't gone that 
way. 

" Oh ! fudge, Roy. It was a queer coincidence, but " — 

" And when the end comes this gypsy's birds may be another," Roy 
interrupted. 

Scott was about to laugh at Roy's superstition when the officer drove 
up in a post-troika, with a burly Russian seated behind the horses, 




WAITING FOR RATIONS. 



The two exchanged a lit- 



182 



ON TO BALAKLAVA! 



wrapped in a thick coat, though it was very warm, and wearing a hat 
which Scott declared beat all creation. 

They drove out two miles toward Balaklava, six miles beyond. 
The country seat was certainly magnificent, but the great gate upon 
the street was locked, and no porter was in the lodge. 

They were obliged to leave the troika and walk nearly a quarter of a 
mile through the park to the stately mansion. 

The servant who came to the door assured them that the master 
and lady had driven to Sebastopol, to return the evening of the next day. 
It was dark when they reached Sebastopol again, but the same story 
was repeated at the city mansion: they were not there. 

" It may be they have gone to Odessa," said the servant. " I do not 
think the yacht Vera is in the bay." 

" So the estate possesses a yacht, too," Roy muttered, " and her name 

is Vera. I wonder what has come 
over Louise that she is taking part 
in this?" 

" In some way she doesn't 
know what she's doine, I'll bet 
on that," said Scott, and he felt 
Roy give his hand a squeeze. 

They held a council and de- 
cided to go again to the country 
seat, early in the morning, and 
wait the return of the captain. 

Again they were obliged to 
leave the troika at the gate, but 
this time they were invited in and 
told to entertain themselves in a 
large drawing-room, where a sam- 
ova of steaming tea was placed 
for them. 

" If he had been in the house and seen us coming, do you think he 
would make himself scarce ? " Roy asked ; and as Scott was about to 
answer his ear caught the sound of distant wheels. 

It was difficult to see through the dense foliage of the park, but 
straining his eyes, between the branches he was sure that he saw their 
troika, with a man and woman seated in it, moving away behind an- 




"A BURLY RUSSIAN. 




THE rORTUNE TELLER. 



ON TO BALAKLAVA ! 



185 



other loaded with something like trunks. " Come quick ! " he exclaimed, 
and sprang to the door followed by Roy and the fat official. They ran 
down the read to the gate. Their troika was gone ! 

" This way ! " cried Scott, starting toward Balaklava. 

Roy and Scott ran side by side, and soon left the puffing officer lag- 
ging behind. The boys were strong and determined, but a sailor's life 
pays little attention to the legs, and theirs were ready to give out when 
they came upon a three-horse hay cart, into which a peasant, at some dis- 
tance, was laboriously gathering a little crop of grain, grown in famine year. 

" It's our only chance ! " Scott exclaimed. " We can make it right 
afterward. Jump in, Roy, and jump quick." 

Like a flash the boys were in the hay cart. Scott caught the whip 
and gave the horses a cut. They started at a furious rate, for they 
were Russians, while the poor peasant stared in blank astonishment. 

" Glory hallelujah ! " Scott gasped. " See there ! On the next hill ! 
There's the troika ! Who knows but we can overhaul it ! " 

" If they know whose aboard this crib they'll hurry, and if they do 
they can outrun these lean things two to one," said Roy. 

" Good idea ! " Scott replied, catching up the peasant's coat and hat 
lying in the cart, and putting them on. " There ! If I'm not a Russian, 
what am I ? Gee up, there ! " he shouted. " Now, Captain Sargent, just 
you lie low. Stow yourself away among that straw. Keep clean out 
of sight. I've got three sails to their two. any way. Gee up, there ! and 
if I don't overhaul that brig it's 'cause there ain't wind enough in the 
sails, or 'cause I don't understand this steering gear. Gee up ! " 

" I'd give more for two jibs like the cobs that brought us up, than for 
ten acres of these condemned old war-horses," Roy replied from down 
among the straw. 

" Never you mind ! " Scott cried. " We're gaining on her ! Gee 
up ! This lash seems to speak first-class Russian, and I reckon the 
handle understands English, for it translates what I'm after. Gee up! " 

" For mercy's sake," groaned Roy, as they splashed through a lot of 
water and banged over a wooden bridge, " you'll smash everything to 
pieces, Scott." 

" I reckon I may, Captain," Scott replied. " To tell the truth — gee 
up, there ! — I'm not just sure of the hull of this craft, nor of the tackle 
either — gee up! — and the rigging is the doubtfullest stuff I ever handled. 
Gee up! But I — whew! We near went to pieces on that rock." 



1 86 



ON TO BALAKLAVA! 



" So we did," groaned Roy. 

"Guess she's got a stronger bottom than I thought for — gee up! 
gee up ! " 

" Are you in the road at all ? " Roy asked. 

" Don't know, Captain," Scott replied. " I've got my eye on the 
craft ahead, and can't keep it in two places at once. Gee up! We're 
gaining — gee up! — or I'm an Esquimau — gee up! And I don't be- 
lieve I'd know the road if I watched for it. There don't seem to be any 




' GEE UT\ THERE !" 



unless it's all in Russian and I can't make it out. Gee up, there! And 
I couldn't tell how to keep in it, if I could see it plain as my nose — gee 
up! — for there's only one line apiece running out to the prow of each 
of these animals, like the reindeer in Lapland. Gee up, there ! When 
I pull they slow up so I let 'em lie loose and use the whip. Gee up ! If 
the lash don't come off I'll keep 'em going till something splits. Gee 
up ! Cracky ! but that was a bad bump. Is there any water in the hold ? 
Seem's though we must have sprung aleak that time. Gee up ! gee up! 
gee up ! Jehu ! They've struck a new tack and bust my best cable, but 
they're gaining ! Gee up ! " 



ON TO BALAKLAVA! 



187 



" How are they now? " Roy asked a moment later. 

"Can't just say; they're round a curve. Gee up! I believe these 
things are getting used to the whip, or else the wind's giving out. 
Gee up! Never mind, we'll be going down hill again in a minute. 




BALAKLAVA. 



That's our best tack, for there don't seem to be any hold-backs about the 
rigging, and they have to run like mad to keep the crib off their heels. 
There ! Didn't I tell you ? Gee up ! or we'll run over you ! " 

" I say, Scott, this thing is listing to port like everything. Do you 
know where you're going ? " 

" Going to Balaklava, Captain. May be we're listing, but I don't see 
why. Everything's level on ahead. The horses know the road better 
than I do. Guess they smell the town. At any rate, they act as though 
they thought they were going somewhere and one of them — gee up, 
there! — seems to think he's almost there — gee up! — but we are listing, 
no mistake. I believe — G. Whittaker ! — There ! I told you so. Any 



1 88 ON TO BALAKLAVA! 

bones broken ? No ? Glad of that. It wasn't my fault," Scott said, as 
he pulled Roy out of a mass of straw and dirt and fragments of a Russian 
hay cart. " I had my mouth open to say that I believed a wheel was 
coming off." 

" Well, you would have been mighty near right, Scott," said Roy, 
rubbing several bruises, while Scott brushed off the dirt and straw as 
they stood beside the dilapidated wreck. " I wish that gypsy and her 
birds had kept away." 

" Bother the gypsy ! " Scott exclaimed. " It was the wheel came off, 
and if the birds did have anything to do with it, why, the white wings of 
the Snowbird may save us yet. Don't forget that she's at Balaklava if 
we need her. Come on ! 

'Forward, the light brigade !' 
Bother the gypsy maid! " 

And setting the example, he began to run again. 

They reached the summit of the next hill. The troikas were out of 
sight, but there, in the valley before them, lay the town of Balaklava, the 
oldest city in Russia — old as the days of Ulysses; governed in turn by 
Italians, Greeks, Turks and Russians; with its dilapidated fortresses and 
ruined breastworks; its ragged mountains and deep and silent fjord. 
And there they saw the white-winged Snowbird. 

" Come on," cried Scott. 

Roy tried to, but fell back again. 

"Scott, I can't !" he muttered. "I'm dizzy. I can't stand up. My 
heart is beating terribly." 

" Well, you just stop and rest and come on easy," said Scott. " I'll 
bet I have strength enough left to reach that wharf, and I want to make 
sure what Captain Downing's up to. Good-by ! Come on easy." 

Late that afternoon the Russian officer and Roy rescued Scott from 
the filth of the Balaklava jail. 

His story was quickly told. He had met Captain Downing upon the 
wharf, after one boat loaded with boxes and carrying Louise, had reached 
the yacht which lay at anchor there. 

The captain attempted to escape him, but Scott, too much exhausted 
to speak, caught him by the coat. 

" Scott Campbell ! " he exclaimed, " you will touch me at your own 
peril. You know who you are dealing with. I advise you to go back to 



ON TO BALAKLAVA, 



189 



America and hold your tongue. I am going to Constantinople for a 
while, where I shall be out of reach of you, of Russia or America. If 
you keep still I'll make it for your interest. I'll make you rich. If you 
don't I'll be the death of you. There ! Let go ! " 

" I never would have let go," said Scott, " though I couldn't speak a 
word to save my life, but who should come up but the everlasting fossil 




OUTSIDE THE FJORD. 



who belonged to that hay cart. He'd come over the hills by a short cut. 
He accused me of I don't know what. Then he pointed to his coat and 
hat. I had forgotten that I had them on. I declare, I don't know what 
did happen, after that. I don't believe I fainted, but I didn't know much 
till I found myself in here. Now the quicker we get to Constantinople 
the better." 



m igim 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






029 726 023 6 




